the.com/white elephant

means A possession that costs far more to keep than it's worth, foisted on you under the guise of generosity.

from Said to come from old Siam (Thailand), where albino elephants were sacred and could not be worked, killed, or given away. The story goes that a king, wanting to ruin a courtier he disliked, would gift him one of these rare white elephants — an honor too sacred to refuse, yet so costly to feed and house that it could quietly bankrupt its owner. The tale may be partly legend polished over time, but by the 1800s English writers had already adopted 'white elephant' as shorthand for any lavish gift that's secretly a burden.