"The Nasruddin stories, known throughout the Middle East, constitute one of the strangest acheivements in the history of metaphysics. Superficially, most of the Nasruddin stories may be used as jokes. They are told and retold endlessly in the teahouses and caravanserais, in the homes and on the radio waves, of Asia. But it is inherent in the Nasruddin story that it may be understood at any of many depths. There is the joke, the moral- and the little extra which brings the consciousness of the potential mystic a little further on the way to realization."
From the book - "The Sufis" by Idries Shah
Nasruddin, ferrying a pedant across a piece of rough water, said something ungrammatical to him. "Have you never studied grammar?" asked the scholar.
"No."
"Then half your life is wasted."
A few minutes later Nasruddin turned to the passenger.
"Have you ever learned how to swim?"
"No. Why?"
"Then all your life is wasted-we are sinking!"
Nasruddin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, even burned it from time to time. Meanwhile he was visibly more and more prosperous.
Then he retired and went to live in another country. Here one of the customs officers met him, years later.
"You can tell me now, Nasruddin," he said. "Whatever was it that you were smuggling, when we could never catch you out?"
"Donkeys," said Nasruddin.
A king who enjoyed Nasruddin's company, and also liked to hunt, commanded him to accompany him on a bear hunt. Nasruddin was terrfied.
When Nasruddin returned to his village, someone asked him:"How did the hunt go?"
"Marvelously."
"How many bears did you see?"
"None."
"How could it have gone marvelously, then?"
"When you are hunting bears, and when you are me, seeing no bears at all is a marvelous experience.
Nasruddin called at a large house for charity. The servant said,"My master is out."
"Very well,"said the Mulla; "even though he has not been able to contribute, please give your master a piece of advice from me. Say: 'Next time you go out, don't leave your face at the window-someone might steal it.'"
A kinsman came to see the Mulla from somewhere deep in the country, bringing a duck as a gift. Delighted, Nasruddin had the bird cooked and shared it with his guest. Presently, however, one countryman after another started to call, each one "the friend of the friend of the man who brought you the duck." No further presents were forthcoming.
At length the Mulla was exasperated. One day yet another stranger appeared. "I am the friend of the friend of the friend of the relative who brought you the duck."
He sat down, like all the rest, expecting a meal. Nasruddin handed him a bowl of water.
"What is this?"
"That is the soup of the soup of the duck which was brought by my relative."
"I shall have you hanged," said a cruel and ignorant king to Nasruddin, "if you do not prove such deep perceptions such as have been attributed to you." Nasruddin at once said that he could see a golden bird in the sky and demons within the earth. "But how can you do this?" the King asked. "Fear," said the Mulla "is all you need."
Nasruddin was throwing handfuls of bread all around his house. "What are you doing?" someone asked.
"Keeping the tigers away."
"But there are no tigers around here"
"Exactly. Effective, isn't it?"
It is believed that the mystical effect of seven Nasruddin tales, told in succession, is enough to prepare an individual for enlightenment.
So, are you enlightened yet?
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