Stories for your soul
Abundance
There was once a conceited and ignorant aristocrat. He had convinced himself that everything which was in any way connected with him was of a special nature, which could function or yield its greatest value, only because of his association with it. Among his possessions were a number of excell...
READ MORE
The Story of the Mice
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a certain building was infested by mice. The people in charge decided to kill them. One night they put down mouse-killing poison. But the next morning the poison had been eaten. "We shall change the type of poison," the people said, and they made another...
READ MORE
The Fruit of the Tree
AN ANCIENT tale, among the Sufis, tells how a wise man once related a story about a remarkable tree which was to be found in India. People, who ate of the fruit of this tree, as he told it, would neither grow old nor die. This legend was repeated, by a reliable person, to one of the Central As...
READ MORE
The Tale of Nasrudin and the Wise men
The philosophers, logicians and doctors of law were drawn up at Court to examine Nasrudin. This was a serious case, because he had admitted going from village to village saying: ‘The so-called wise men are ignorant, irresolute and confused.’ He was charged with undermining the security of the ...
READ MORE
Accommodating a different point of view
Nasrudin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, and even...
READ MORE
The Sentry and the Vault
I must emphasize this point: my stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, wretched imaginings, or vapid guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing away the effective substance. Thus the urge to tag tidy little rationalizations, persuasive formul...
READ MORE