Once, the Mullah was invited by the people of the city to deliver a sermon.
He began by asking “Do you know what I am going to say?” The audience replied “No, sir, we don’t.”
Gathering up his robes around him in annoyance, he declared: “I have no desire to speak to people who don’t even know what I will be talking about.” And he left.
The people felt embarrassed and called him back again the next day. This time when he asked the same question, the people quickly chorused, “Yes, yes, we do!” at which Nasruddin snapped, “Well, since you already know what I am going to say, I won’t waste any more of your time and mine.” And again he walked off.
Now the people were really perplexed, in fact, some were thoroughly annoyed; so they worked on a new strategy. They decided to invite the Mullah to speak again the following week. This time too, he asked the very same question – “Do you know what I am going to say?”
The people had planned their response, and so half of them answered “Yes!” while the other half replied, just as strongly, “No!”
This time, they were sure, they had him.
Mullah Nasruddin looked slowly around the room: “Those of you who know what I am going to say, can tell it to the other half who don’t…” and swept out once again.
The group had surrounded a dog.
Concerned the boys were hurting the dog, the reverend went over and asked, “What are you doing with that dog?”
One of the boys replied, “This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we’ve decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog.”
The reverend was taken aback, “You boys shouldn’t be having a contest telling lies!” he exclaimed.
He then launched into a 10-minute sermon against lying, beginning, “Don’t you boys know it’s a sin to lie?” and ending with, “Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie.”
There was dead silence for about a minute. Just as the reverend was beginning to think he’d gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, “All right, give him the dog.”
The preacher, in his sermon, used “Forgive Your Enemies” as his subject.
After a long sermon, he asked how many were willing to forgive their enemies. About half held up their hands.
Not satisfied, he harangued for another twenty minutes and repeated his question. This time he received a response of about 80 percent.
Still unsatisfied, he lectured for another 15 minutes and repeated his question.
With all thoughts now on dinner, all responded except one elderly lady in the rear.
“Mrs Jones, are you not willing to forgive your enemies?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Mrs Jones, that is very unusual. How old are you?”
“Ninety-three.”
“Mrs Jones, please come down in front and tell the congregation how a person can live to be ninety-three, and not have an enemy in the world.”
The little sweetheart of a lady tottered down the aisle, very slowly turned around and said:
“It’s easy, I just outlived them all.”
