- English translation
Your neighbor stays your neighbor, even when he does you wrong.
- Literal wording
The neighbor is a neighbor, even if he acts unjustly.
- Meaning and lesson
Wrongdoing does not strip a neighbor of his place. The person living beside you who treats you unjustly still holds, despite that injustice, the standing and regard that living next door carries with it.
The lesson is forbearance. Sharing a wall or a street ties people together more tightly than almost any bond outside the household, so a neighbor's offenses are better absorbed than answered by withholding what he is owed.
- When it is used
Offered to someone with a grievance against the household next door, encouraging them to keep honoring neighborly obligations and remain on decent terms instead of retaliating or cutting off the relationship.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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