proverb · Words worth keeping
Do not stuff your servant with bread, and he won’t ask for cheese.
Do not stuff your servant with bread, and he won’t ask for cheese.
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The speaker proposes controlling a servant’s requests by limiting satisfaction. Read the bread and cheese critically as an unequal arrangement that treats another person’s needs as something to suppress.
Example
An organiser invites volunteers to state what support they need rather than giving too little and hoping nobody will ask for more.
Deeper explanation and when to use it
The advice links not filling the servant with bread to preventing a request for cheese. Its focus is the controller’s convenience rather than the person receiving provision. This can expose a strategy of keeping expectations low by limiting what is given, but it should not be adopted as guidance for treating workers or dependents. Reasonable needs deserve consideration in their own right. The literal wording is historical; this reading does not establish how any particular household actually behaved.
When to use it
Use it critically to examine whether provision is being used to suppress another person’s requests.
Keep in mind
Do not follow it as advice to restrict food, exploit workers or control a dependent’s needs.
An interpretation of the words, not a claim about their earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional (Spanish-language collection)
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Date unknown