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Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«سَفِيهَكْ دَارِيهْ وِاعْمِلْ كَحْكْ وِادِّيهْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

Keep your fool happy: bake him some sweet cookies and hand them over.

Literal wording

Your fool, humor him, and make kahk and give it to him.

Meaning and lesson

The saying recommends managing a foolish or ill-mannered person through gentleness rather than confrontation. Instead of arguing with someone who will not listen to reason, one should humor them and even sweeten them with treats, because quarreling with such a person only produces more trouble.

The image of baking rich cookies and handing them over exaggerates the effort one is willing to make. That playful overstatement conveys a shrewd attitude: keeping a difficult person content is a small price for peace. It is tactful appeasement, not approval of foolishness.

When it is used

Fits situations where someone has to deal with a foolish or unreasonable person they cannot easily avoid. It works as practical advice to stay calm, humor that person, and offer goodwill rather than retaliate or argue, not as a general call to reward bad conduct.

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