Tiếng Việt · Proverb Candidate

Tiền hết gạo không, khôn ngoan rùa mốc

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Being poor but still pretending to be wealthy

Literally: Money is gone, rice is not, clever like moldy turtle

Examples

Anh ấy vẫn đi du lịch dù Tiền hết gạo không, khôn ngoan rùa mốcHe still travels even though he's pretending to be wealthy when he's actually poor

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 “Tiền hết gạo không, khôn ngoan rùa mốc” mean?

Being poor but still pretending to be wealthy Literally: Money is gone, rice is not, clever like moldy turtle

Is “Tiền hết gạo không, khôn ngoan rùa mốc” formal or informal?

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

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