It's a wicked thing to make a dearth one's garner.

The proverb condemns treating a shortage as an opportunity for personal gain. It judges profit built on other people's deprivation to be morally wrong.

A garner is a storehouse. The image suggests filling one's own stores through the very scarcity that leaves others in need; the objection is to exploiting hardship, not simply keeping supplies.

Use it to criticize someone who profits from a shortage at others' expense. Its forceful moral judgment makes it better suited to condemnation than to a neutral account of prices or supplies.