When a foolish person gains wealth suddenly, s/he might start to spend it ostentatiously and sometimes even talks rubbish. If such people get a powerful position, they might even abuse it foolishly. Such persons need not necessarily be evil ones, but the results could be because of their foolishness.
There are a few proverbs in Telugu language which translates to when a poor person became rich all of a sudden, he asked the barber to dress his hair at midnight.
To take one a peg lower – does this convey the appropriate meaning?
What are the other English equivalent proverbs or idioms for the same?
Best Answer
There is an old saying A fool and his money are quickly parted*.
It dates from at least as early as the sixteenth century.
Thomas Tusser, in his rhyme Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1573) says:
A foole & his money, be soone at debate: which after with sorow, repents him to late.
And more exactly to the point:
Dr. John Bridges, in Defence of the Government of the Church of England (1587) says:
If they pay a penie or two pence more for the reddinesse of them..let them looke to that, a foole and his money is soone parted.
Quotations from The Phrase Finder