«زَيِّ الْجَمَلْ اِللِّي يِحْرِتُهْ يِبَطَّطُهْ»

The saying pictures a camel put to work behind a plow. As it walks the furrows, its broad, padded feet press the freshly loosened earth flat again, so the plowing is undone almost as soon as it is done.

Applied to people, it describes someone who puts real effort into a job and then wrecks the result through their own conduct. The point is self-cancelling labor, where the worker is the cause of the damage.

Use it to comment on someone whose own carelessness undoes their hard work, such as finishing a task and then ruining it. It is a wry or exasperated remark about wasted effort, and can sound mocking when aimed at a person, so use it with care.