Find It or Else
Once Nasruddin was traveling on business when he rushed into the local teahouse in a panic, yelling, “I have misplaced my saddlebag! You must find it for me at once, or else — I know what I’ll do! If I don’t find it, by Allah! I’ll have to —”
“Don’t panic, Mullah, no need for desperate measures,” Hussein assured him. “I’ll help you find your old saddlebag. Now just sit down and think for a moment: where was your bag the last time you saw it?”
So he helped Nasruddin retrace his steps, and sure enough, they found the saddlebag, right where he left it.
As they returned to the teahouse, Hussein asked, “What were you saying that you would have done if we hadn’t found your saddlebag, Nasruddin?”
“Well, I would have had to cut up an old kilim rug I have in my shed and stitch it together to make a new one.”
Excerpted from The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin: Stories, Jests, and Donkey Tales of the Beloved Persian Folk Hero
Your Daily Nasruddin
This story shows how you may threaten people to get them to help you. Just say, “Or else…!” in an agitated or even slightly insane manner, then trail off and never complete your statement. But after you acheive your goal, when someone confronts you asking what the alternative was, smile and tell the truth.
Guilt by Association
Guilt by Association
Excerpted from The Uncommon Sense of the Immortal Mullah Nasruddin: Stories, Jests, and Donkey Tales of the Beloved Persian Folk Hero
There are a handful of stories about the loss of Karakacan, Nasruddin’s beloved little grey donkey. She’s often described as old, feeble, and resistant, and seems to lose her way much more often than, say, my donkey, if I had one. Still the old burro has the same sort of indomitable spirit as Nasruddin, always seeming to return just in time for the next story.
Nasruddin settles the question among a number of conflicting opinions among his neighbors and fellow villagers in the community. He almost always gets the last word!