- English translation
News for a penny? Wait a day and you'll hear it for free.
- Literal wording
O news for a jadid coin! He said: Tomorrow it will be for nothing.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying sets up a tiny exchange: a call offers a piece of news for a jadid, a small coin of the period (not the adjective 'new'), and the answer is a shrug. Why pay today for something that will be circulating freely by tomorrow? Patience gets the same information at no cost.
Underneath the joke lies a broader claim that news cannot stay hidden. Whatever is concealed or sold as a secret now will reach everyone soon, so hoarding it, or straining to obtain it early, is a wasted effort.
- When it is used
Use it to cool someone's eagerness to pay, pry, or bargain for information that will surface anyway. It also works as a dry remark when someone guards a secret that is certain to spread by itself before long.
- Register
- Colloquial Arabic
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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