A cat bitten once by a snake dreads even rope.

This is a traditional Arabic proverb (mathal) circulated orally across the Arabic-speaking world rather than traceable to a single author or first publication. It belongs to a broad family of Near Eastern and Mediterranean sayings that use animal imagery to express learned fear after injury. In everyday speech it is invoked to explain why someone who has been harmed—by betrayal, loss, or a dangerous encounter—becomes wary of anything that resembles the original threat. Because proverbs are transmitted in multiple dialects and collections, the wording varies, but the core scenario (a cat once bitten by a snake) remains stable as a vivid, memorable illustration of trauma-informed caution.

The proverb means that a painful experience can condition a person to overgeneralize danger: after being bitten, the cat reacts with fear even to a harmless rope that merely resembles a snake. It captures how memory and survival instincts can turn prudence into hypervigilance, making the sufferer interpret ambiguous cues as threats. The saying can be used sympathetically—to justify caution after real harm—or critically, to warn that fear can distort judgment and lead to unnecessary avoidance. Its enduring force lies in the simple contrast between genuine peril (snake) and innocent look-alike (rope), dramatizing how experience reshapes perception.

Once bitten by a snake, he fears even a rope.
A man bitten by a snake is afraid of a rope.
He who has been bitten by a snake fears a rope.