Khôn ngoan thì kiếm ăn người, mạt đời thì kiếm ăn quanh

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Intelligent people make a living from others, while foolish ones have to work hard for it

Literally: Intelligent then feed people, end of life then feed around

Examples

Anh ta khôn ngoan thì kiếm ăn người, còn tôi thì mạt đời thì kiếm ăn quanhHe's clever and makes a living from others, but I'm foolish and have to work hard for it

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 ngoan thì kiếm ăn người, mạt đời thì kiếm ăn quanh” mean?

Intelligent people make a living from others, while foolish ones have to work hard for it Literally: Intelligent then feed people, end of life then feed around

Is “Khôn ngoan thì kiếm ăn người, mạt đời thì kiếm ăn quanh” formal or informal?

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

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