Tales of Nasrudin part II

3878
Alexander Pearson
Tales of Nasrudin part II

Farmers ... who were good at numbers.

Of all the towns that the mule Nasrudin visited on his travels, there was one that was especially famous because its inhabitants were very good at numbers. Nasrudin found lodging in a farmer's house. The next morning he realized that the town did not have a well. Every morning, someone from each family in the town would load one or two donkeys with empty water jugs and they would go to a stream that was an hour's walk away, fill up the jugs and take them back to town, which took them another hour. more.

"Wouldn't it be better if they had water in the village?" Nasrudin asked the farmer in the house where he was staying. "Of course it would be much better!" Said the farmer. "Water costs me two hours of work every day for a donkey and a boy who leads the donkey. That makes a year one thousand four hundred and sixty hours, if you count the hours of the donkey as the hours of the boy. But if the donkey and the boy they were working in the fields all that time, I could, for example, plant a whole field of pumpkins and harvest four hundred and fifty-seven more pumpkins each year. "

"I see that you have it all well calculated," Nasrudin said admiringly. "Why then don't you build a canal to bring the water to the river?" "That is not so simple!" Said the farmer. "On the road there is a hill that we should cross. If I had my donkey and my boy build a canal instead of sending them across the water, it would take them five hundred years if they worked two hours a day. At least I have another thirty years left. of life, so it is cheaper for me to send them for the water. "

"Yes, but would you be the only one responsible for building a canal? There are many families in the village."

"Sure you do," said the farmer. "There are a hundred families in the town. If each family sent a donkey and a boy two hours every day, the canal would be done in five years. And if they worked ten hours a day, a year would be over."

"So why don't you tell your neighbors about it and suggest that you all build the canal together?

"Look, if I have to talk about important things with a neighbor, I have to invite him to my house, offer him tea and halva, talk to him about the weather and the new harvest, then about his family, his sons, his daughters, his grandchildren. Then I have to feed him and after eating another tea and he has to ask me about my farm and my family to finally come to the subject calmly and treat it with caution. That takes a whole day. As we are one hundred families In the village, I would have to talk to ninety-nine heads of household. You will agree with me that I cannot spend ninety-nine days in a row arguing with the neighbors. My farm would collapse. The most I could do would be to invite a neighbor to my house per week. As a year is only fifty-two weeks old, that means it would take me almost two years to talk to my neighbors. Knowing my neighbors as I know them, I assure you that everyone would agree to get the water to the town, why They are all good with numbers. And since I know them, I tell you that each one would promise to participate if the others participated as well. Then, after two years, I would have to start all over again from the beginning, inviting them back to my house and telling them that everyone is willing to participate. "" Okay, "said Nasrudin," but then in four years you would be ready to start work. And the next year, the canal would be built! "

"There is another problem," said the farmer. "You will agree with me that once the canal is built, anyone can go for water, as long as they have contributed their share of work or not."

"I understand," Nasrudin said. "Even if you wanted to, you couldn't monitor the entire channel."

"Well no," said the farmer. "Any cheek that got rid of working would benefit in the same way as everyone else and at no cost."

"I have to admit that you are right," said Nasrudin.

"So as each of us is good at numbers, we will try to sneak away. One day the donkey will not have strength, the other someone's boy will have a cough, another someone's wife will be sick, and the child, the donkey they will have to go find the doctor.

As we are good at numbers, we will try to get away with it. And since each of us knows that the others will not do what they should, no one will send their donkey or their boy to work. Thus, the construction of the canal will not even begin. "

"I have to admit that your reasons sound very convincing," Nasrudin said. He was thoughtful for a moment, but suddenly exclaimed: "I know a town on the other side of the mountain that has the same problem that you have. But they have had a canal for twenty years now."

"Indeed," said the farmer, "but they are not good at numbers."

Do you know what I am going to talk to you about?

This story begins when Nasrudin arrives in a small town somewhere far away in the Middle East..

It was the first time he was in that town and a crowd had gathered in an auditorium to hear him. Nasrudin, who really did not know what to say, because he knew that he knew nothing, decided to improvise something and thus try to get out of the quagmire in which he was.

He entered very safely and stood in front of the people. He spread his hands and said:

-I suppose if you are here, you already know what I have to say to you..

People said:

-No… What do you have to tell us? We don't know. Talk to us! We want to hear you!

Nasrudin replied:

-If you came here without knowing what I am here to tell you, then you are not prepared to listen to it..

after saying this, he stood up and run away.

The people were surprise. Everyone had come that morning to listen to him and the man was just saying that. It would have been a total failure if it weren't for one of those present - one is never missing - as Nasrudin walked away, said aloud:

-How smart!

And as always happens, when one does not understand anything and another says "how smart!", So as not to feel like an idiot, one repeats: "yes, of course, how smart!". And then everyone started repeating:

-How smart.
-How smart.

Until one added:

-Yes, how smart, but ... how short.

And another add:

-It has the brevity and synthesis of the wise. Because he is right. How are we going to come here without even knowing what we are here to hear? How stupid we have been. We have missed a wonderful opportunity. What enlightenment, what wisdom. We are going to ask this man to give a second lecture.

So they went to see Nasrudin. People had been so amazed at what had happened in the first meeting that some had begun to say that the knowledge of Him was too much to bring together in a single conference..

Nasrudin said:

-No, it is just the other way around, they are wrong. My knowledge is barely enough for a conference. I could never give two.

People said:

-How humble!

And the more Nasrudin insisted that he had nothing to say, the more people insisted that they wanted to hear him one more time. Finally, after much effort, Nasrudin agreed to give a second lecture.

The next day, the so-called enlightened one returned to the meeting place, where there were even more people, since everyone knew of the success of the previous conference. Nasrudin stood in front of the audience and insisted with his technique:

-I suppose you already know that I have come to tell you.

People were advised to be careful not to offend the teacher with the childish response from the previous lecture; so they all said:

-Yes, of course we do. That's why we have come.

Nasrudin lowered his head and then added:

-Well, if you all already know what I am here to tell you, I do not see the need to repeat.

Got up and went back to go.

People were dumbfounded; because although now they had said otherwise, the result had been exactly the same. Until someone, someone else, screamed:

-Sparkly!

And when everyone heard that someone had said "brilliant!", The rest began to say:

-Yes, of course, this is the complement of the wisdom of yesterday's lecture!!

-How wonderful
-How amazing
-How sensational, how barbarous

Until someone said:

-Yes, but ... very brief.
-It's true- another complained
-Synthesis capacity - justified by a third party.

And immediately it was heard:

-We want more, we want to hear more. We want this man to give us more of his wisdom!!

Then a delegation of the notables went to see Nasrudin to ask him to give a third and final lecture. Nasrudin said no, not at all; that he did not have the knowledge to give three lectures and that, furthermore, he already had to return to his hometown.

People begged him, pleaded with him, asked him over and over again; for his ancestors, for his progeny, for all the saints, for whatever. That persistence persuaded him and, finally, Nasrudin accepted trembling to give the third and final lecture..

For the third time he stood in front of the public, which were already crowds, and said:

-I guess you already know what I'm going to talk about.

This time, the people had agreed: only the mayor of the town would answer. The man in the front row said:

-Some yes and others no.

At that moment, a long silence shook the audience. Everyone, even the youths, followed Nasrudin with their gaze.

Then the teacher replied:

-In that case, those who know ... tell those who don't know.

He got up and go away.

Nobility

Before walking through the garden gate, the stranger knew that the Duke had liked him. A stream of sympathy immediately established between the two.

For three long days they walked together in silence. Pacing their steps, each one absorbed in his own interests, they stopped in unison to smell the same thyme and to drink from the same source..

Increased by successive encounters, the friendship was perpetuated while both lived.

That white mastiff had a true and authentic nobility.


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