«عِرْيَانْ بِيِجْرِي وَرَا مْقَشَّطْ»

The image sets one man with nothing at all chasing another whom robbers have just left bare. Whatever the pursuer hopes to get, there is nothing there to take, so the effort is pointless from the start. The proverb captures expectation aimed at an empty source.

Applied to people, it describes someone whose desire or greed is directed where no reward could possibly exist. It gently mocks the misjudgment, not anyone's poverty: persistence cannot extract benefit from a person or circumstance already stripped of everything worth having.

Use it to comment on someone pinning hopes of gain on a person or venture that plainly has nothing to offer, such as seeking a loan from someone already broke. It suits teasing or wry criticism of misplaced hope in casual conversation, not ridicule of the poor.