Ăn mày chẳng tày giữ bị
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
It's better to prevent a problem than to fix it after it happens
Examples
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-08; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “Ăn mày chẳng tày giữ bị” mean?
It's better to prevent a problem than to fix it after it happens Literally: Eating mày (a type of rice) is not as good as keeping bị (a type of container)
Is “Ăn mày chẳng tày giữ bị” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.