Special Kind of Music | Mullah Nasruddin Books by Ron J. Suresha

Special Kind of Music

One evening Nasruddin and his young son, Ahmet, were walking down a road in town. They saw two thieves trying to break into a business, making a lot of noise by filing the front door lock. Nasruddin tried to get past the danger without making more trouble for himself but then the inquisitive boy said loudly, “Father! Who are those men in front of the store?”

“You hush – me hush!” whispered Nasruddin. “The men are musicians, playing their instruments.”

“But Father! What are they doing?”

“Shhh! They’re playing a special sort of song on the rebab*,” said Nasruddin.

“What sort of music are they playing? … Father! I can’t hear the rebab music,” whined Ahmet.

“Be quiet!” Nasruddin hushed his son, desperate to avoid attracting the thieves’ attention. “They’re playing a song, all right — but you won’t hear the music until tomorrow.”

Excerpted from The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin: Stories, Jests, and Donkey Tales of the Beloved Persian Folk Hero

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* A rebab is a bowed instrument native to the Persian area.