Less Is Better

Mulla Nasrudin opened a booth with a sign above it: Two Questions On Any Subject Answered For Only 100 Silver Coins. A man who had two very urgent questions handed over his money, saying: A hundred silver coins is rather expensive for two questions, isn’t it? Yes, said Nasrudin, and the next question, please?

One day Mulla Nasrudin went to a banquet. As he was dressed rather shabbily, no one let him in. So he ran home, put on his best robe and fur coat and returned. Immediately, the host came over, greeted him and ushered him to the head of an elaborate banquet table. When the food was…

Mulla Nasrudin claimed to be God and was brought before the Caliph, who said to him, “Last year someone here claimed to be a prophet and he was put to death!” Nasrudin replied, “It was well that you did so, for I did not send him.”

Mulla Nasrudin was cutting a branch off a tree in his garden one day. While he was sawing, a man passed by in the street and said, “Excuse me, but if continue to saw that branch like that, you will fall down with it.” He said this because Nasrudin was sitting Nasrudin said nothing. He…

Walking one evening along a deserted road, Mulla Nasrudin saw a troop of horsemen rapidly approaching. His imagination started to work; he saw himself captured or robbed or killed and frightened by this thought he bolted, climbed a wall into a graveyard, and lay down in an open grave to hide. Puzzled at his bizzare…

“May the Will of Allah be done,” a pious man was saying about something or the other. “It always is, in any case,” said Mulla Nasrudin. “How can you prove that, Mulla?” asked the man. “Quite simply. If it wasn’t always being done, then surely at some time or another my will would be done,…