- English translation
What does not belong to you will soon be taken away.
- Literal wording
What is not yours will, after a little while, be taken off you.
- Meaning and lesson
The proverb cautions that the use of a borrowed item is temporary. What belongs to another remains subject to its owner's reclaiming it, even when the borrower has had it only a short time.
Its immediate image is a borrowed garment that must be taken off when its owner asks for it back. The saying stresses the insecure, passing nature of possession held on loan rather than permanent ownership.
- When it is used
Used to warn against treating a borrowed garment or another loaned possession as permanently one's own, since its owner may reclaim it after a short interval. The concrete image of removing borrowed clothing is central to the expression.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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