«تِتَبِّتِ الْحَبْلْ وِالْجِرَابْ مَقْطُوعْ»

The saying uses a figurative image to criticize incomplete caution: someone may carefully protect one part of a matter while overlooking a different weakness that defeats the whole effort. Attention to a minor safeguard cannot compensate for a serious flaw left unrepaired.

It encourages looking at a problem as a connected whole. Effective planning requires identifying the point where loss actually occurs, rather than spending energy on visible precautions whose benefit disappears because a more basic vulnerability remains.

Use it when a person takes a sensible precaution in one area but neglects another, more consequential defect. It suits advice about planning, household tasks, work, or agreements when an overlooked gap makes the careful step ineffective.