- English translation
One drink taken outside spares the jar at home.
- Literal wording
A drink from outside saves the jar.
- Meaning and lesson
The image is of a single drink taken outside the home, which leaves the household water jar untouched by that amount. A small benefit gained elsewhere is treated as a saving on one's own provisions, however meager those provisions happen to be.
Applied to people, the saying describes someone who pushes economy to an extreme, valuing even the slightest outside gain because it spares what is kept at home. The emphasis falls on the habit of carefully protecting a small personal stock rather than on seeking outside help.
- When it is used
Apply it to a person whose thrift is so thorough that even a single drink taken elsewhere counts, for them, as water saved in the household jar. It suits remarks about extreme economy in guarding modest home supplies, not general advice to rely on outside help.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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