For the 60th story, I turn to my favourite character: Mulla Nusruddin
Mulla Nusruddin on his donkey
Mulla Nusruddin was walking on the road and he saw a man sitting on the wayside, looking very unhappy and dejected. Mulla asked him, “What is bothering you?” The man replied, “I have nothing of interest in my life. I have money enough so I do not have to work. I am seeking happiness, but I have not found it in anything so far.”
In a flash, Mulla lifted the man’s bag and began running. The man ran after Mulla, but could not catch him. Mulla knew all the by lanes of the area and soon he was back on the road ahead of the man who was looking for the thief. Mulla placed the bag by the side of the road and was watching from a hideout.
Presently, the sad man turned up, looking even more unhappy due to the loss of his bag. As soon as he saw his bag, he ran towards it, shouting with joy.
Mulla came out and told the man, “That is one way of producing happiness.”
Background: This is one of the many tales of Mulla Nusruddin, also called Nusreddin Hodja. Mulla stories are found in many countries and cultures, especially in the Muslim world. In some stories, Mulla appears to be very foolish, in others very wise. But there is always something funny about a Mulla story. Not only that, most stories have layers of deeper truths too, if we reflect on them.
We do not know whether such a person ever existed, though Turkey claims to be the Mulla’s native place. UNESCO proclaimed 1996-97 as the Year of Nusreddin Hodja. Possibly, the Sufis created this character in order to convey some truths to people.
You will find innumerable Mulla stories on the Internet, but they are not all of the same quality. The three collections of Mulla stories written by Idries Shah, the scholar of sufism, are dependable.
If you have ever attended any of my presentations or workshops, you would recall the Mulla stories I include in order to enliven the proceedings! I will publish more Mulla stories on this website in the days to come.
The authentic tales are full of underlying truths. Probably, pearls in the ocean. One needs to dive deep to fathom the endowed truths from many of the stories. Thank you for more of his tales, to be published in future.
Thanks, Ravi, for all your insightful comments on many of the stories.
So happy to see Mulla back :). The best part of Mulla’s stories are that one would find a different meaning from the same story when one comes back to the story at a later point of time. Hence, have always found them very powerful. Have been quite vary of the stories if they didn’t sound interesting at the first instance – it just says that I need to read it again at a later point in time 😀
We were missing Mulla Nasruddin stories for a long time. Now I know where I will find them!
Great story of ego related happiness 😉 as well as how a “tragedy” is needed in order to value what we have…and many more layers.