«اِلْعَاقْلَهْ وِالْمَجْنُونَهْ عَنْدِ الرَّاجِلْ بِالْمُونَهْ»

The saying claims that from a husband's practical standpoint, a sensible wife and a foolish one come to the same thing, because each eats and must be provided for. Its frame is a gendered household where he supplies her upkeep, meaning food and maintenance costs, not affection, and she is reduced to an expense.

More broadly, it points out that personal merit does not change basic material obligations: a provider pays the same to feed a capable dependent as an incapable one. The term for the madwoman works only as a blunt opposite of the sensible wife, not as a considered statement about mental illness.

Suited to remarks that a dependent's good qualities do not reduce what it costs to support them, or that a provider bears the same burden either way. Because it reduces wives to an expense, it can sound dismissive, sardonic, or offensive; citing it should not endorse that view.