- English translation
The person who watches over their crop gets to enjoy its harvest.
- Literal wording
Whoever guards his cucumber patch eats cucumbers.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying stresses that benefits remain with the person who protects and tends what is theirs. Neglect leaves one vulnerable to losing the very thing from which one hoped to profit.
It encourages steady vigilance rather than passive expectation. The image of a guarded garden makes responsibility practical: care for a resource, task, or opportunity if you want to receive its reward.
- When it is used
Used to advise someone not to neglect property, work, or an opportunity whose outcome depends on continued attention. It can also be said when diligent oversight has enabled someone to preserve and benefit from what they have cultivated.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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