- English translation
Nobody hawks his own oil as murky.
- Literal wording
No one calls out about his oil that it is cloudy.
- Meaning and lesson
Picture a vendor crying his oil in the market: he will praise it freely but will never shout that it is cloudy. The proverb states plainly that people selling something do not publicize the faults of what they offer.
The logic behind it is straightforward self-interest. Drawing attention to a defect would turn buyers away and leave the merchandise sitting unsold, so anyone hoping to make a sale keeps the shortcomings out of the pitch.
- When it is used
Suitable as a remark when a seller praises goods while saying nothing of their faults, or when someone points out that a merchant cannot be expected to announce the weaknesses of what he is trying to sell.
- Register
- Colloquial; the wording is dialectal rather than Classical Arabic
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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