dar papaya

What it means

1. 1.

   To leave yourself open to being robbed, cheated or taken advantage of — flashing a phone on the street, leaving a bag on a chair, telling the wrong person what you earn.

2. 2.

   The full proverb is 'a papaya puesta, papaya partida': papaya set out is papaya cut up. The responsibility sits with the person who gave the opportunity, not only the one who took it, and that assumption runs through Colombian social life.

3. 3.

   Beyond crime, it covers any self-inflicted vulnerability: giving an opponent an opening in an argument, a game or an office.

Literally: To give papaya.

Examples with translations

• No dé papaya con el celular en la calle.

  Don't flash your phone about in the street.

• Dejó el computador en el carro; eso es dar papaya.

  He left the laptop in the car — he was asking for it.

• Le di papaya en la reunión y me la partieron.

  I gave them an opening in the meeting and they took it.

  Note: No theft involved. The metaphor covers any exposed flank.

Where it comes from

From the fruit: a papaya left out is a papaya someone will help themselves to. The phrase is Colombian and the attitude it encodes — that visible opportunity is itself a mistake — is the one visitors most often find bracing, since it places part of the blame on the victim.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

papayazo, dar papayita

Similar terms:

papayazo