مثل بقارات جحا

Syrian proverb from Arabic Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases:

مثل بقارات جحا
(mitl baqarit jiha) 
Literal meaning: Like Joha's cow
Meaning: Describes something that drags on for a long time, i.e. a lawsuit.


This proverb comes from one of the traditional Arabic stories featuring the folk hero Joha , called Nasreddin in Persian  (read his Wikipedia article here)
These famous stories are a little like Aesop's fables in Western culture. you can read a collection of them in English here.
Jewitt describes the cow story like this in his book Arabic Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases:
" Jiha slaughtered his cow, sold his meat, and received his pay. After a while, he again demanded paymentfrom each purchaser and received it. He kept on doing this until he died."
I'm not sure why the purchases in the story kept giving Joha money, perhaps I need a more complete version of the story.