? ?Mullah Nasruddin (Nasreddin)
 

A famous collection of stories, which were not necessarily written for children but became childrens favorites, are the stories of Mullah Nasreddin. These short stories, or anecdotes, have a human character as their hero with frequent appearances of his trusty donkey. This is the name that many children remember hearing about in childhood. Here are a few of the thousands of humorous and thoughtful stories about him. His identity is being claimed by many countries.

Hidden Depths

One day Mulla Nasrudin was in the market and saw birds for sale at five hundred reals each. "My bird," he thought, "which is larger than any of these is worth far more." The next day, he took his pet hen to market. Nobody would offer him more than fifity reals for it. The Mulla began to shout:

"O people! This is a disgrace! Yesterday you were selling birds only half this size at ten times the price."

Someone interrupted him: "Nasrudin, those were parrots - talking birds. They are worth more because they talk."

"Fool!" said Nasrudin; "those birds you value only because they can talk. This one, which has wonderful thoughts and yet does not annoy people with chatter, you reject."

Compass

Someone brought a compass that he had found and asked Mulla Nasrudin if he knew what it was. Mulla looked at the compass and began to cry. A few minutes later, he stopped crying and began to laugh.

The man asked: "Why did you cry and why are you laughing now?"

Mulla said: "I cried because I thought how stupid you were not to know what a tiny object like this is. Then I laughed, because when I thought about it, I realized that I didn't know what it was either."

Change

Nasrudin was now an old man looking back on his life. He sat with his friends in the tea shop telling his story. "When I was young I was firey - I wanted to awaken everyone. I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change the world.

In mid-life I awoke one day and realized my life was half over and I had changed no one SO I prayed to Allah to give me the strength to change those close around me who so much needed it.

Alas, now I am old and my prayer is simpler. "Allah," I ask, "please give me the strength to at least change myself."

Take My Hand

One day Mulla Nasrudin saw a crowd gathered around a pond. A Moslem priest with a huge turban on his head had fallen in the water and was calling for help.

People were leaning over and saying, "Give me your hand Reverend! Give me your hand!" But the priest didn't pay attention to their offer to rescue him; he kept wrestling with the water and shouting for help.

Finally Mulla Nasrudin stepped forward: "Let me handle this." He stretched out his hand toward the priest and shouted at him, "Take my hand!"

The priest grabbed Mulla's hand and was hoisted out of the pond. People, very surprised, asked Mulla for the secret of his strategy.

"It is very simple," he replied. "I know this miser wouldn't give anything to anyone. So instead of saying 'Give me your hand,' I said, 'take my hand,' and sure enough he took it."

The Ring

Once, someone requested of Mulla Nasrudin: "Give me your ring as a memento, so that whenever I look at it I will remember you."

"Mulla replied: "You cannot have the ring. But whenever you want to remember me, just look at your finger and remember that I did not give you the ring!"