What does ‘Camel gets his nose under the tent’ mean?

Solution 1:

The idiom is an allusion to a story that takes place in Arabia, with this metaphorical moral:

If the camel once gets his nose in the tent, his body will soon follow.

In view of this, the meaning of the phrase like the camel getting his nose under the tent is rather distinct from poking and prying. This phrase would also not be appropriate to describe someone who is sneaky.

In context of the paragraph, the phrase means that what is happening now could just the beginning of what will happen.

Solution 2:

Though peter is factually correct, I don't think he is able to get the nuance of the story across correctly.

In the story, a man seeks shelter from a sandstorm in his tent but leaves his camel outside. The camel asks permission to put his nose in the tent, and the man gives it. The camel then progressively asks permission to put more and more of his body in the tent and finally the man has to leave the tent because his camel is taking all the space.

The moral of the story is "Don't allow even small malpractices, because they will grow big eventually." (The focus is on the "don't allow" part).

So the phrase means that what is happening is a mistake, which although small, should be stopped.

Solution 3:

It's a common adage used in the Indo-Pak subcontinent, meaning if you give the camel room to fit his head in the tent, he would make space for his body himself.

If someone can get a part of his way, he would soon get the rest as well.

It is somewhat like a "foot in the door" usage.