Derleth
February 16, 2006, 1:46am
21
Johanna : Is ‘Nasr al-Din’ ever rendered as Nasrudin? If so, the Linux fortune files have some good ones that mention him:
A neighbor came to Nasrudin, asking to borrow his donkey. “It is out on loan,” the teacher replied. At that moment, the donkey brayed loudly inside the stable. “But I can hear it bray, over there.” “Whom do you believe,” asked Nasrudin, “me or a donkey?”
Nasrudin called at a large house to collect for charity. The servant said “My master is out.” Nasrudin replied, “Tell your master that next time he goes out, he should not leave his face at the window. Someone might steal it.”
One day the King decided that he would force all his subjects to tell the truth. A gallows was erected in front of the city gates. A herald announced, “Whoever would enter the city must first answer the truth to a question which will be put to him.” Nasrudin was first in line. The captain of the guard asked him, “Where are you going? Tell the truth – the alternative is death by hanging.”
"I am going," said Nasrudin, "to be hanged on that gallows."
"I don't believe you."
"Very well, if I have told a lie, then hang me!"
"But that would make it the truth!"
"Exactly," said Nasrudin, "your truth."
This above is a version of the Epimenides Paradox, something immediately familiar to the target audience, and as such it might not be geniune. But it’s still amusing.
“There is nothing which cannot be answered by means of my doctrine,” said a monk, coming into a teahouse where Nasrudin sat.
"And yet just a short time ago, I was challenged by a scholar with an unanswerable question," said Nasrudin.
"I could have answered it if I had been there."
"Very well. He asked, 'Why are you breaking into my house in the middle of the night?'"
Johanna
February 16, 2006, 4:54am
22
That’s the guy, Derleth . You found him all right. I love that stuff.
Nasruddin just dismantles people’s pretensions, especially the ones they don’t know about.