"Bí iná kò bá tàn, ẹ̀fúùfù ò leè mú un lọ.” Òwe yìí túmọ̀ sí pé:

The proverb "Bí iná kò bá tàn, ẹ̀fúfù ò lè mú un lọ" (If the fire does not catch, the wind cannot carry it away) uses fire as a picture of trouble that a person themselves must first start, and wind as a picture of outside forces or people that only make an existing problem worse. The proverb's real message is that outside forces cannot create trouble out of nothing; there must already be an opening or spark from the person involved.

The option stating that if a person does not give room for trouble, they will not experience trouble (bí ẹnìyàn kò bá fi àyè fún wàhálà, kò ní ṣe wàhálà) expresses this figurative meaning correctly: without an initial cause from the person, external pressure has nothing to act on.

Restating the proverb literally, that fire spreads once lit and wind fans it, only repeats the surface image without explaining its figurative lesson, while claiming that wind never carries anything contradicts the proverb's own words. Yoruba proverbs almost always carry a figurative lesson about human behaviour, so the correct interpretation should explain the underlying moral, not restate the literal scene.