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Every year
Nasruddin's day is celebrated in Turkey with great
pomp and show. The age in which he lived is not
exactly known. There are even doubts about the
country of his birth. Iranians claim that he was
from Iran. The turks have their own claim. The
latest claim is that of the Russians who say that he
was born in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. But he is said to
be burried in Turkey. Whatever Nasruddin's place of
birth and nationality might have been, the fact
remains that his anecdots are famous all over the
world.
Volume I
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Nasruddin’s
question
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Nasruddin’s
blanket
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| One
dlay Nasruddin, while passing by a place, had a
few apricots in his sleeve. He saw some people who
were sitting under a tree. Calling them he asked a
question, “if any one of you found out what I
have in my sleeve, I will give the biggest apricot
to him.” One of them said,” If any one answers
this question, he must be having pmphecy. |
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One
winter night while Nasruddin was sleeping he heard
a noise that was suddenly made in the street.
Having covered himself with his blanket, he came
out to know the cause of the noise. Suddenly a
smart thief robbced him of his blanket and ran
away. He came back home without the blanket. In
reply to his wife who was asking about the reason
for the noise, Nasruddin said, “All the quarrel
was about my blanket.”
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How
has the camel come?
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Only
place, but no Palaw (rice)
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| Nasruddin
had a little money. He wanted to hide it some
where. At first he dug a hole, kept the money
there and covered it with soil. After a while he
thought the money was not safe there because it
would be discovered soon. He dug another hole and
kept the money there. He repeated this action many
times. But he was not sure of its security. He
removed it out of the last hiding. He put the
money into a bag and rode on a donkey taking the
bag to a hill top near his house. He fixed a stick
vertically in the ground and from it suspended the
bag. Iooking at it from a distance Nasruddin
commented, “Human being is not a bird to come
here and steal the bag,” He came back home.
Incidentally a man who was watching Nasruddin from
a distance took the money from the bag and poured
dung of camel into it. After a few days when
Nasruddin was in need of cash, he went to find the
bag. When he brought the bag down from the stick,
he found dung of a camel in it. He got surprised
and said, “It is very interesting. How could a
camel reach to a place where a person can’t?”
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Once
Nasruddin took his students to his house and
insisted they should have lunch with him. Moment
later, he called his wife and ordered her to cook
Palaw for the guests as soon as possible. His wife
said, “You order so simply as if you have rice
and ghee in the house.” Nasruddin became very
angry and said: “Can’t you at least bring
empty plates? His wife accepted and a few minutes
later brought the plates to Nasruddin. He took the
empty plates and placed them in front of the
guests. “Friends!” he said, “If I had bought
rice and ghee, I would have brought you an oily
Palaw in these plates.”
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Rescuing
the moon
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Planting
flax
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| Nasruddin
was looking at the image of the moon in a well. He
thought it was a recompense to take out the moon
from the well. Therefore, he threw a rope inside
the well and swung it a few times. Incidentally,
the tip of the rope got caught to a big stone. He
tried to take the rope out. Hence he pulled it
with a lot of force. The rope tore off and he fell
on his hack to the ground. When he looked at the
sky, he saw the moon and said, “Doesn’t
matter. My efforts were not wasted. Though I faced
a lot of difficulties, I finally succeeded to
rescue the moon.”
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Once
Nasruddin went to a hair dresser to get his head
shaved. Incidentally, the barber was
inexperienced. The moment he cut a part of his
scalp, he would put a piece of cotton on the
wound. Finally Nasruddin became angry and told the
barber, “You planted cotton on half of my head.
I would like to grow flax in the remaimng half.”
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| Nightingale
with an unpleasant tune
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Nawoozobillah
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Once
Nasruddin went to a garden and climbed on apricot
tree. The gardener observed this and asked him,
“Why did you climb someone else’s tree?”
Nasruddin answered, “Don’t you know I am
nightingale and for nightingales climbing a tree
is not a sin.” The gardener laughed and said,
“Please sing so I listen and enjoy.” Nasruddin
started to sing in his horse voice. The gardener
asked him whether nightingale sang so badly.
Nasruddin replied, “A nightingale which eats raw
apricot will not sing better than this.”
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Once
a king consulted Nasruddin. “Daring the Abasis
and after, khalifs used to add the term
“Allah" after their names. What title do
you think I should choose for myself? Nasruddin
answered “Nawoozobillah” (God forbid).
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Lack
of etiquettes
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Because
of lack of time
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Nasruddin
went to a judge’s office to divorce his wife. The
judge asked him, “What is your wife’s name?”
He answered. “I don’t know.” “For how many
years havd you remained as spouses?” The judge
asked again. He said “More than 20 years”. The
judge asked him. “How come you don’t know her
name?” Nasruddin answered, “Because I did not
have any social relations with her.”
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Once
a person slapped Nasruddin in the street. Later he
came hack and started to apologize and said that he
had mistaken Nasruddin for some one else. But
Nasruddin was not satisfied and took tight hold of
his collar, took him to the judge and told the judge
about the incident. The judge ordered, “Nasruddin
must slap that person to avenge. But Nasruddin
didn’t get satisfied. Thus the judge ordered the
person to give Nasruddin a gold coin in lieu of the
slap. The accused had to go out of the court to
bring the gold coin. Nasruddin waited for sometime.
The accused didn’t come hack. Nasruddin stood up
and slapped the judge on his face and said, “Since
I have a lot of work, whenever that person Comes and
brings the coin, You take the money for this
slap.”
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