A former prostitute left homeless when her identity documents were stolen, five times stabbed the man, who gave her a roof over her head, during a row.
Gloucester Crown Court heard Polish Patrycja Kuchcinska was left with no means of working when Juraj 'George' Ihnat, who was nearly twice her age, offered her somewhere to stay.
But following an argument at Mr Ihnat's Weston Road home in Gloucester on September 2, last year, the 28-year-old mum left him with stab wounds to his face and neck.
Judge Jamie Tabor QC said what had happened between Mr Ihnat, 53, and Kuchcinska, who was jailed for 22 months for the attack, may never be known.
Mr Ihnat told the court she had been staying with him for two weeks and he had fallen asleep on the bed after drinking cider that evening.
He told the court: "She was sitting on the sofa and then she approached me and she stabbed me in my face, neck and above me ear. She stabbed me three times.
"I started bleeding quite badly from the neck, but I was quite scared about what she would do next, so I decided to lie on the bed and pretend I was dead.
"It went quiet and I thought she was asleep. I put my head up looking at what she was doing and she said 'you're still alive, I will kill you' in Polish."
He said she then stabbed him twice more, once in the arm and once in the leg, before running out of the home. He was taken to hospital where he stayed overnight.
Asked why he thought the mum of a nine-year-old, who still lives in Poland, launched the attack on him when he had been kind to her and provided her with a home, he answered: "That's what I don't understand."
Defending Joe Maloney described Mr Ihnat's version of events as "unbelievable".
Kuchcinska, of no fixed abode, said she moved to the UK looking for employment six years ago and ended up working as a prostitute in London and then Gloucester.
She told the court Mr Ihnat, who she had sex week the week before, had become jealous when she was discussing computers with one of his friends, earlier that day.
She said: "I went to the toilet and when I came back he attacked me with a knife and that is when the fight started. It happened very quickly."
She said some of his injuries had been caused in the struggle, but admitted it went beyond self-defence and pleaded guilty to causing him grievous bodily harm.
Judge Tabor said: "It is difficult to see what motive she could possibly have for simply attacking a defensive man who is fast asleep unless something had taken place.
"According to him he decided to pretend he was dead – I certainly do not believe that.
"I find it impossible to know what happened in the flat on that day. I am quite sure that neither has told us the whole story."
As well as the prison sentenced, she was ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge.
