- English translation
They found the beggar woman a husband to keep her in comfort, but she tucked a bite of food out of sight and went right on calling, 'Charity, my lady, charity!'
- Literal wording
They married off the beggar woman so she would be made well-off; she put a morsel in the wall niche and said: 'O my lady, an alms!'
- Meaning and lesson
The saying pictures a beggar who is married off so that a husband can provide for her, yet she tucks her food into a wall recess and keeps reciting the beggar's customary plea for alms. It mocks people whose low habits outlast the very circumstances that once forced those habits on them.
A second lesson lies underneath the joke: material comfort cannot cure a grasping temperament. Real sufficiency is an inner state, and someone lacking contentment will go on acting poor no matter how much is given, so changing a person's situation does not automatically change their character.
- When it is used
Use this saying when someone who no longer needs to scrounge, cheat, or complain keeps doing it anyway. It works best as a wry, somewhat cutting remark about ingrained behavior and an unsatisfied spirit rather than about real hardship.
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- Colloquial