This proverb highlights a situation where someone is so tired of a certain activity that they don’t even want to perform a simple task. The old woman is so fed up with dealing with ashes that she won’t even bother to pick up a small piece of the broomstick. It can be a metaphor for someone who has become so jaded or disillusioned by their experiences that they refuse any additional tasks, no matter how simple. An equivalent English proverb would be: ‘You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.’