I lost a dime in the movie theater. Then why are you looking for it outside? Because the light is better.

Why bother eating today. You will just be hungry tomorrow.

Nasrudin was once asked a difficult question to which he did not know the answer.

"I could explain," said Nasrudin, "but if you knew the answer, you would not ask the question."

Nasrudin is linked for me with the books of idries shah. in "caravan of dreams" there is the tale of "mushkil gusha". Do you link the lucid dream with what is called an "event" in the introduction of the tale?

I read many Nasrudin tales before I read this one. I found them insightful and loads of fun. The following, though, is my unequivocal favorite. I don't know why.

Every time I try to tell this short tale, I bust into laughter until I cry. I have trouble getting to the punch line. Then when I am finally able to hysteric it out - tears running down my cheeks - I always get a dumb look like I am a total idiot. You be the judge!

A wag met Nasrudin. In his pocket he had an egg. "Tell me, Mulla, are you good at guessing games?"

"Not bad," said Nasrudin.

"Very well then: Tell me what I have in my pocket."

"Give me a clue."

"OK. It is shaped like an egg. It is yellow and white inside, and it looks like an egg."

"Some sort of cake," said Nasrudin.

Nasrudin had saved up to buy a new shirt. He went to the tailor's shop, full of excitement. The tailor measured him and said, "Come back in a week, and if Allah wills, your shirt will be ready."

Mulla contained himself for a week and then went back to the shop.

"There has been a delay. But if Allah wills, your shirt will be ready tomorrow."

The following day Nasrudin returned. "I am sorry," said the tailor, "but it is not quite finished. Try tomorrow, and if Allah wills, it will be ready."

"How long will it take," asked the exasperated Nasrudin, "if you leave Allah out of it?"

Hamza, the philosopher, was peddling truisms in the teahouse. He was droning on: "How strange is humanity. Man is never satisfied. When it is winter, it is too cold for him. In summer, he complains of the heat!"

The others present nodded their heads sagely, for they believed that by so doing they partook of his wisdom.

Nasrudin looked up from his abstraction. "Have you not noticed that nobody ever complains about the spring?"

Mulla Nasrudin traveled from Persia to China. Soon a group of disciples had gathered around him. His reputation eventually spread back to his homeland and a party of new followers, desiring illumination, traveled from Persia to China to study with him.

After their first lecture, he received them. "Why, Mulla," one of them asked, "do you lecture on a secret word, "namidanam,' which the Chinese may not understand, but which we realize in Persian means "I don't know."

Nasrudin replied, "What would you have me do, lie my head off?"

In a teahouse, some soldiers were boasting about their recent campaign. The local inhabitants crowded eagerly around them to listen.

One fearsome-looking warrior was saying, "I took my sword and charged the enemy, scattering them to the left and right like chaff." There was applause.

"That reminds me," said Nasrudin, who had seen a few battles himself, "of the time when I cut off the leg of an enemy on the battlefield. I severed it right through!"

"You would have done better, sir," replied the captain of the soldiers, "to have cut off his head."

"That would have been impossible," said Mulla. "You see, someone else had already done that."

Nasrudin was aboard a passenger ship that was about to sink. The passengers were on their knees praying and repenting, promising to make all kinds of amends if only they could be saved.

Suddenly, in the midst of the panic, Mulla leapt up and shouted, "Wait! Don't rush to change your ways. I think I see land!"

Stephen and Lester were deeply involved in a discussion regarding the Manifestation of Light in Dreams. Suddenly, appearing from seemingly nowhere, they noticed that Mulla Nasrudin was standing nearby listening with apparent interest. They were both so delighted to meet this venerable personage that they did not even think to do a reality check. Lester spoke first and invited Nasrudin to offer any insight of his own on the topic.

Mulla, eager as always to add illumination, proclaimed that in our dreams, "The moon is more useful than the sun."

Truly puzzled by this comment, Stephen asked why that would be.

"Because at night we need the light more."

One day a kinsman came to see Mulla Nasrudin from somewhere deep in the country, bringing a duck as a gift.. Delighted, Nasrudin had the bird cooked and shared it with his guest.

A few days later another countryman came calling and said, "I am the friend of the man who brought you the duck." Although no present was offered, Mulla invited him to stay for dinner.

Soon thereafter, yet another countryman appeared, this time saying, "I am the friend of the friend who brought you the duck." Once again, Mulla showed the same hospitality.

Not a week had passed when the Mulla again found at his doorstep a countryman who proclaimed that he was "the friend of the friend of the friend who brought you the duck."

He sat down, like all the rest, expecting a meal. Nasrudin handed him a bowl of hot water.

"What is this?."

"This is the soup of the soup of the soup of the duck which was brought by my relative.