Afghan proverb: extend your legs to the length of your carpet

The Afghanistan Times presented a long article about the country’s challenges, mentioning in it five Afghan proverbs. One of them is to ‘extend your legs to the length of your carpet.’

It is the equivalent of the saying ‘cut your coat according to your cloth’ meaning that you should live within your means.

The proverb ‘cut your coat according to your cloth’ advises people to cut and sew a coat according to the cloth available so that no cloth is wasted. It also warns that the size of the coat should not exceed the piece of the cloth that a person has at hand, otherwise the coat will be unfit to wear.

Part of making the coat with the cloth given is the necessity to make a proper plan before cutting the cloth. So this proverb instructs a person to live within their means and resources – within their budget.

The Afghan carpet saying is just as apt. For the size of the carpet, a person can spread their legs only so far, otherwise their legs will be on the dusty ground. If a carpet is large enough, legs can be stretched to their full length, but if a carpet is small a person should consider this before stretching their legs. In other words, they must know their limitations – or the limitations of the carpet.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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