- English translation
Like the jars on a waterwheel, the full ones spill into the empty.
- Literal wording
Like the pots of the waterwheel: the full one pours onto the empty one.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying praises a group in which the better-off help the needy among their own people. It draws on the traditional waterwheel, whose clay pots are fixed around a turning wheel; as it rotates, the full pots tip their water into the empty ones, just as plenty passes from those who have it to those who lack.
What the saying values is the easing of another person's hardship. Just as water runs from a filled vessel into a hollow one, help is pictured as passing from those who hold more to those who hold less, bringing them comfort and support.
- When it is used
Said approvingly of a family, neighborhood, or community where those who have plenty share with those who lack, especially when the speaker wants to praise the way the better-off look after the less fortunate within their own group.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Like the jars on a waterwheel, the full ones spill into the empty.