Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Khôn ăn trộm ngái, dại ăn trộm gần

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Clever people do wrong secretly, foolish people do wrong openly

Literally: Clever steal far, foolish steal near

Examples

Anh ấy khôn ăn trộm ngái, dại ăn trộm gần, nên luôn bị phát hiệnHe is foolish to do wrong openly, so he is always caught

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 2026-08-06; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Khôn ăn trộm ngái, dại ăn trộm gần” mean?

Clever people do wrong secretly, foolish people do wrong openly Literally: Clever steal far, foolish steal near

Is “Khôn ăn trộm ngái, dại ăn trộm gần” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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