được bạc thì sang, được vàng thì độc
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Having too much of a good thing can be harmful
Literally: having silver then bright, having gold then poisonous
Examples
Anh ấy được bạc thì sang, được vàng thì độc, giờ phải bán nhà để trả nợ.He had too much of a good thing and now has to sell his house to pay debts.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “được bạc thì sang, được vàng thì độc” mean?
Having too much of a good thing can be harmful Literally: having silver then bright, having gold then poisonous
Is “được bạc thì sang, được vàng thì độc” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.