proverb · Words worth keeping
Anyone who goes hungry for three days will steal.
Anyone who goes hungry for three days will steal.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
Three days of hunger making anyone steal links deprivation with wrongdoing. The saying presents urgent need as a force acting on conduct.
What the words are saying
Anyone and the exact duration are unsupported universal claims. A responsible interpretation can take hunger seriously without portraying poor or hungry people as inevitable thieves. Need does not establish guilt, and support, options and responsibility require actual evidence rather than a stereotype.
Everyday example
A reader asks how an unmet material need can be addressed without assuming the person will commit a crime.
When to use it
Use it critically to examine deprivation and agency.
What it does not mean
No fixed hunger-to-theft timetable or guilt from deprivation is established.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
United States
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.- Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided wisdom reference (2014 AD)
Supplied reference B; unit 180; PDF page 21; collection label: United States
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- United States