«عَوِيلْ يِكْرَهْ عَوِيلْ وِصَاحِبِ الْبِيِتْ يِكْرَهْ الِاتْنِينْ»

People who live off someone else's generosity tend to see one another as rivals. Each freeloader, here called عويل, a dialect term for a lowly sponger, not the standard word for wailing, resents the other for sharing the same handouts, so dependence breeds hostility.

Meanwhile, the person who bears the cost likes neither. A variant names a beggar (شحات) instead, with the same point. The proverb disparagingly mocks the petty feuds of dependents, whose quarrel means nothing to a provider who would gladly be rid of both.

Used wryly or critically, and best applied with care since it casts real people as parasites and can offend, when two hangers-on resent each other for competing over one host's generosity while the host tires of both. It fits household, family, or workplace squabbles among dependents.