«جِينَا نْسَاعْدُهْ فِي دَفْنَ ابُوهْ فَاتْ لِنَا الْفَاسْ وِمِشِي»

The picture is of people who come to help a man dig the grave of his own father, only to have him leave the digging tool with them and go off. Whether that tool is pictured as an axe, a hoe or a pickaxe, the point is the same: his own duty falls on the helpers.

It is applied to someone whose affairs others take the trouble to handle while he himself neglects them and does not share in the effort. The burial is an image; it is not limited to funerals. The fault is leaving one's own business to well-meaning helpers and stepping aside from work properly his.

Say it of a person who lets others take on his own affairs while he neglects them and contributes none of the labor himself. It fits situations where helpers end up carrying a task that belongs first to the very person they came to assist.