Chleb stracił, a bułki nie znalazł.
Listen
What it means
“He lost the bread and didn’t find a roll.” Someone gave up something solid in hopes of something better, and ended up with nothing. A warning against greed or reckless risk-taking.
English equivalent
Between two stools one falls to the ground.
Vocabulary
- chleb — bread
- stracić — to lose, to forfeit
- bułka — bread roll
- znaleźć — to find
Grammar note
'Stracił' and 'znalazł' are both masculine singular past tense forms. 'Bułki' is the genitive singular after the negation 'nie znalazł'.
Cultural context
The contrast between plain bread (chleb) and a fancier roll (bułka) neatly captures the idea of chasing an upgrade and losing everything.
Intermediate
Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!
More Polish proverbs
- "A stepmother, even if made of sugar, is always bitter." No matter how kind a stepmother tries to …
- "For a wise head, two words are enough." A clever person needs only a brief hint to understand; …
- "A Pole is wise after the damage is done." Poles (or people in general) tend to learn from mistakes …
- "The wise will accept advice; the fool will scorn it." Intelligent people are open to counsel, while …