Making Pickles
The Hodja wants to eat the pickles straight away, but his wife makes him wait; and the Hodja learns the taste of patience.
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One autumn day Nasreddin Hodja's wife decided to make pickles. She picked cabbages, peppers, carrots and cucumbers from the garden. She washed them all, chopped them and packed them into a big jar, poured brine and vinegar over them, and sealed the lid of the jar tightly.
The Hodja loved pickles. As soon as he saw the jar, he grabbed a fork: "Wife, let me taste one." His wife caught his hand: "No, husband! Pickles need forty days. I only made them today."
The Hodja was not willing to wait forty days. The next morning he got up early, opened the lid of the jar a little, took out a cucumber and bit into it. The cucumber was still raw, salty and tasteless. The Hodja pulled a face: "These pickles aren't ready!"
The next day he opened it again and tasted again: "Still not ready." And the day after that, again. Every time he opened it, air got into the jar, and the pickles began to spoil. At last his wife noticed: "Husband! If you open it every day, these pickles will never be ready. They'll go bad!"
The Hodja was ashamed, but his impatience did not go away. So his wife came up with a solution. She put the jar in the cellar, locked the cellar door and hung the key around her own neck. Every day, as the Hodja walked past the cellar door, he sighed: "How long forty days are!"
At last the fortieth day came. His wife put the jar on the table and opened the lid. The smell of pickles filled the whole house. The Hodja took a cucumber and bit into it: crunchy, delicious, perfectly ready! The Hodja closed his eyes: "Wife, I've never eaten pickles like this in my life."
His wife laughed: "Husband, the secret of these pickles isn't in the salt or the vinegar. Their secret is in the waiting." The Hodja nodded: "You're right, wife. Every good thing has its time. Pickles have their forty days, crops have a summer, and people have a lifetime. A jar opened too early, like a job done in a hurry, turns out tasteless."
That winter the Hodja and his wife ate pickles at the table every evening. And with every bite the Hodja said, "Patience has a taste all its own."
The tale ends here. Sleep well.
Making Pickles is a children's tale from Nasreddin Hodja, suitable for ages 5-12 and about 2 minutes long. Read it free on Masal Merkezi, play a lullaby or nature sound in the background, tap any word to see its Turkish meaning and save it to your favorites. For similar tales browse the Nasreddin Hodja category.
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