Nasruddin

Missive #544 Published 8 August 2025

99. Nasruddin Thinks of Soup

Nasruddin was hungry, but he had nothing to eat in the house. He sat in the kitchen, dreaming of soup. A nice noodle soup with beans and lentils, some onion and spinach, seasoned with some turmeric, yogurt on the side…

Then, as Nasruddin was thinking about that soup, he heard a knock at the door. It was his neighbor’s young son.

“Please, Nasruddin,” said the boy, “if you have cooked a pot of soup here, may we please have some?”

The boy then held out an empty bowl.

“Incredible!” Nasruddin exclaimed. “The neighbors can smell even the thought of soup.”

Missive #533 Published 18 July 2025

96. Frightening Nasruddin

“Our son won’t do his chores,” said Nasruddin’s wife. “You must frighten him to make him behave!”

Nasruddin jumped up and began to scream. He stuck out his tongue and shook his fists wildly. He then grabbed a knife.

At this, Nasruddin’s wife started sobbing, and Nasruddin himself ran out of the room.

When he returned, his wife was still crying, and his son was hiding under a chair.

“Why did you run away?” she asked.

“I scared even myself,” Nasruddin admitted. “Terror easily gets out of control. I meant to frighten our son, and instead I frightened us all.”

Missive #529 Published 11 July 2025

95. Nasruddin and the Donkey-Boy

Nasruddin bought a donkey and was leading it home. On the way, a thief stole the donkey and left his young son in the harness.

When he got home, Nasruddin was surprised to see his donkey had turned into a boy.

“For my bad behavior, my mother cursed me to become a donkey,” the boy said. “But I repented, and now I’m human again.”

“Make sure you don’t misbehave in future!” Nasruddin said, sending the boy home.

The next day Nasruddin saw the same donkey at the market. “You bad boy!” said Nasruddin. “Didn’t I tell you to behave yourself?”

Missive #525 Published 4 July 2025

94. Nasruddin and the Hooligan

One of the local hooligans threw a rock at Nasruddin’s donkey. Nasruddin saw what the boy had done but, instead of yelling at him, he laughed.

“You’re a very good shot!” Nasruddin exclaimed. “I’m impressed. But my donkey is not a worthy target for someone of your talent. You deserve a better target!”

Nasruddin then noticed the mayor riding by on his horse.

“Like the mayor, for example,” Nasruddin said, pointing.

The boy threw a rock at the horse’s rump, and when the horse reared, the mayor tumbled to the ground.

“Arrest that boy!” the mayor shouted.

Nasruddin just smiled.

Missive #520 Published 27 June 2025

93. Nasruddin and the Sugar

A mother brought her son to see Nasruddin. “My son eats too much sugar,” she said. “Please make him stop!” Nasruddin patted the boy on the head and said, “Come back in two weeks and we’ll see what we can do.”

The mother promised to return in two weeks.

At their next meeting, Nasruddin looked at the boy and said sternly, “You must stop eating sugar!”

“Why did we have to wait two weeks for you to say that?” asked the mother.

“I had to make myself stop eating sugar,” replied Nasruddin, “before telling someone else to do the same.”

Missive #517 Published 20 June 2025

92. Nasruddin and the Grapes

Nasruddin was on his way home carrying a basket full of bunches of grapes when he ran into some children along the way.

“Give us some grapes, Nasruddin!” shouted the children. “Please, Nasruddin, share your grapes with us!”

Nasruddin really didn’t want to share his grapes with the children, but the children insisted.

Reluctantly, he took some grapes from the basket and cut each grape in half. He then gave each child half a grape.

“Give us more!” the children complained.

“All the grapes in this basket taste the same,” Nasruddin explained. “Half of a grape is all you need.”

Missive #514 Published 13 June 2025

91. Nasruddin and the Village Boys

Nasruddin met some boys from the village and decided to play a trick on them.

“Hey!” he shouted. “Did you know it’s the mayor’s birthday? There’s a party with music and dancing and all the food you can eat. You better hurry and run to the mayor’s house as fast as you can!”

“Thank you, Nasruddin!” shouted the boys, and they immediately dashed off towards the mayor’s house.

Then Nasruddin thought to himself, “You know, it really might be the mayor’s birthday after all…” and he began to run after the boys.

“Wait for me!” he shouted. “I’m coming too!”

Missive #508 Published 6 June 2025

90. Naked Nasruddin

One morning Nasruddin arrived at school not wearing any clothes. He was completely naked! All the other schoolboys laughed at him, but the teacher was not amused. In fact, he was very angry.

“Nasruddin, explain yourself!” said the teacher sternly. “What on earth are you doing here without any clothes on?”

“Just let me explain,” Nasruddin replied, smiling brightly at the teacher. “I woke up late, so I was in a big hurry and I ran just as fast as I could. I simply didn’t have time to get dressed if I wanted to get here to school on time.”