Forty-Year-Old Vinegar

In Nasreddin Hodja's cellar there was a big old jar full of vinegar. The Hodja was very proud of this vinegar: "My vinegar is exactly forty years old!" he would say. Everyone in the village knew that forty-year-old vinegar is very precious; it gives flavour to food and is good for illness.

One day his neighbour's wife fell ill. The neighbour knocked on the Hodja's door: "Hodja, the doctor said to make an ointment for my wife with old vinegar. Will you give me a little of your forty-year-old vinegar?"

The Hodja shook his head: "No, neighbour, I can't."

The neighbour was surprised: "Why not, Hodja? One bowl is enough."

The Hodja explained: "Neighbour, this vinegar is forty years old. Do you know why it's forty years old? Because for forty years I haven't given any to anyone! If I'd given it to everyone, it wouldn't be forty years old, it would be a week old."

The neighbour laughed at first, but then he was sad. He bowed his head and got ready to go home. When the Hodja saw his sad face, he suddenly stopped. His own words had touched his heart. "I've kept it for forty years, and what good has it done? The vinegar has sat in the jar and helped no one," he thought.

The Hodja called his neighbour back from the door: "Wait, neighbour! Give me your bowl." He filled the bowl to the brim with vinegar. "Take it, and may it do your wife good. I've kept this jar for forty years. Let it be useful at last."

The neighbour ran home happily. The doctor made the ointment with the vinegar, and the neighbour's wife was well again in a few days. When the neighbour came to thank him, the Hodja said: "Neighbour, it's I who should thank you. Thanks to you, I understood that what is kept is not precious; what is shared is. My forty-year-old vinegar healed a woman, and now I've earned forty-one years' worth of good."

From that day on the Hodja gave his forty-year-old vinegar to anyone who needed it. Slowly the jar emptied, but the Hodja's heart was full.