The Stories of Mulla Nasrudin
Here is a sampling of several Mulla Nasrudin/Juha stories. There is a noticeable difference in the stories told, depending upon the influences of a particular country or the time period the story was told in:
Juha and the Donkey (Jordan)
One day a neighbor came to Juha’s house and asked. ``Will you let me borrow your donkey?’’
``O best of friends,’’ said Juha, ``much as I should like to be of service and assistance to a man so honorable as you, I regret that my donkey is not here today.’’
He had hardly finished speaking when the donkey began to bray.
``It appears that I am blessed with good fortune and your donkey is here after all,” said the neighbor.
``What!” exclaimed Juha, ``are you willing to accept the word of my donkey and to doubt me, a man advance in years, whose beard is white?’’
Tried to Fool Him
Nasrudin was at a football game. He had been shouting until half-time, and felt thirsty.
'I'm going to get a drink of water,' he told his friend.
'And one for me,' said the friend.
In a few minutes Nasrudin came back.
'I tried to have a drink of water for you, but I found, after I had had my own drink, that you were not thirsty after all.'
Moral: If you really want a drink of water, drink it yourself.
How to Keep it Going
Mulla Nasrudin used to stand in the street on market-days, to be pointed out as an idiot.
No matter how often people offered him a large and a small coin, he always chose the smaller piece.
One day a kindly man said to him:
'Mulla, you should take the bigger coin. Then you will have more money and people will no longer be able to make a laughing-stock of you.'
'That might be true,' said Nasrudin, 'but if I always take the larger, people will stop offering me money to prove that I am more idiotic than they are. Then I would have no money at all.'
Juha and the Hunter's Gift (Morocco)
A countryman who enjoyed hunting once visited Juha in the city and brought him a hare as a present. Juha took the hare to his wife, had her roast it in the way he most relished, and invited the hunter to stay and share it with him.
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