Painterly open ornate wooden chest holding folded fabrics and gold coins beside a lit lantern.

Original artwork, not a still

Pablo Picasso

I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The wish combines the simplicity associated with having little and the security of possessing plenty. Its contradiction is deliberate: the speaker wants freedom from the performance of wealth without accepting the hardship of lacking money. The joke distinguishes a preferred way of living from the resources that make it possible.

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