«لَمَّا تِتْخَانِقِ الْحَرَامِيَّه يبَانِ الْمَسْرُوقْ»

People who share a guilty secret keep it hidden only as long as they stay on good terms. When a dispute breaks out among them, each begins pointing at the others, and in the process the wrongdoing they covered up together is brought into the open.

The saying also frames such discord as working to the advantage of those who were wronged. This is an attitude the proverb expresses, not a dependable claim about how such disputes actually turn out, though in its view culprits' rivalry can expose what outsiders could not.

Applies to situations where former accomplices in a dishonest scheme fall out with one another, and their mutual accusations expose what they had jointly concealed, whether stolen property or some other shared misconduct.