My evil dad said, “Keep your dick out of the till.” Not very polite, though.
I asked the good folks over at the American Dialect Society for some help on this one. So far the best reply found the “don’t shit where you eat” from 1953(Saul Bellow). He also found a cite from 1937 which offered “…be sick in one’s own hat.” And the poster offered that he wouldn’t be surprised to see it originate in the birds/nest.
And, by using Google Book search, the “dirty bird/nest/fouls” is found in the works of Thomas Chandler Halliburton." 1830’s.
George Alsop, A Character of the Province of Maryland (1666) “For its an ill Bird will befoule her own Nest.” This is its first American citation (from Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases). There are several others from the 17th through 19th centuries. “Shit” is in the index, but nothing like the OP’s proverb is attested. (I am rather fond of “Claw a Churl by the breech and he will shit in your fist” [1674], which they compare to “Whistle to a Jade and he will pay you with a fart,” same source.)
That’s the one I was going to post…
Further, according to John G. Kunstmann in “The Bird That Fouls Its Nest”:
“the proverb ‘It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest,’ was first recorded in complete form in Latin by Egbert von Lüttich in verse 148 of his Fecunda Ratis. There it reads: nidos commaculans immundus habebitur ales… circa 1023 A.D.” (Southern Folklore Quarterly 3 (1939), p. 75)
Several of the proverbs quoted use “shit” words: 12th century, Progenies avium mala foedat stercore nidum. (same source). Modern versions in many languages also have ‘shit’ words in the proverb. Incidentally, Kunstmann suggests that the bird that befouls its own nest is the hoopoe.
No, no. It’s the gannet.
Don’t dump where you hump.
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Then crap it out later.
“Employees must wash hands before returning to work.” That one usually keeps the shit out of the food.
One which doesn’t exactly fit, but this reminded me is, “You don’t stand outside the tent and piss in.”
Polite? “Be careful how you make your bed—you’re going to have to sleep in it.”
Don’t piss in the well. You’re going to get thirsty eventually.
“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” is somewhat close.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I am, with all due respect to everyone, utterly astounded at the number of posters so far who don’t seem to grasp the situation described by the OP’s phrase. “Don’t fuck the help” is the dead-on.
The politest version is Laura Holt’s from the 1st season intro to Remington Steele: “Don’t mix business with pleasure.”
This is a really good point, as I usually hear the proverb used to mean “do not sleep with your co-workers” rather than “keep your kitchen tidy.” So, metaphorically:
Do not shit (= fuck)
where you eat (= work).
I still maintain that it derives from the “dirty bird” proverb, but you can tell a lot about our culture’s attitudes toward life by the metaphorical equivalents expressed in the current version.
There’s little doubt that you’re right about it’s origin. I was most impressed by your scholarship in your earlier presentation.
With all due respect to **Knead To Know ** and Dr. Drake, several of the posters who strayed from the “keep your dick out of the till” model were aiming at humor, after the OP had been adequately answered. On the other hand, “don’t shit where you eat” doesn’t easily translate to “don’t fuck the help,” unless you’re into coprophilia. In several works of fiction, DSWYE means “don’t swindle your co-workers,” “don’t steal from your own family,” and “don’t be vicious toward your relatives.”
“Do not shit (= fuck)”?? Maybe you fuck that way, mon ami. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… 