Do not keep control over household affairs. The one who keeps control has to wander around. The unusable money [torn notes, ruined coins] are offered as homage in prayer rituals! ‘Live’ as a ‘friend’ with the ‘wife’. You are her ‘friend’ and she is your ‘friend’.

Meaning: The saying joins devotion to one God with room for many friendships. It values a wide circle of companions without making friendship a competition in numbers or requiring every reader to share its religious premise.

Meaning: The saying combines individual self-interest with a shared appeal to God. It can express a tense situation in which people look after themselves, but it does not justify abandoning others or suggest that shared needs can be left entirely to divine care.

Meaning: Bags stand for possessions or money, and the saying suspects that apparent affection follows wealth. It invites scrutiny of interested attention rather than proving that wealthy people cannot be loved, or that every friendship contains a concealed bargain.

Meaning: Seeking food or generosity is pictured as especially difficult when others are fasting. The saying puts a request beside a setting in which the expected resource is restricted.