Nine Silver Coins

One night Nasreddin Hodja saw a man in his dream. The man was holding out nine shiny silver coins: "Hodja, take these nine coins. They're yours."

Even in his dream the Hodja bargained: "Nine won't do. Make it ten. What can I do with nine coins? Give me ten, so it's a round number."

"I'll give you nine and not one more," said the man. "Ten!" said the Hodja. "Nine!" said the man. As they argued, the Hodja suddenly woke up. He looked around: there was no man and no coins. The room was dark and his hand was empty.

At once the Hodja squeezed his eyes shut and stretched his hand out from under the quilt: "All right, all right, nine then! I give up, nine will do. Hand them over!"

But once a dream has slipped away, it never comes back. The Hodja waited with his hand stretched out until morning, and not a single coin came.

In the morning he told his wife. His wife laughed and laughed: "Husband, do you bargain even in your dreams?" The Hodja sighed: "Ah, wife, today I learned a great lesson. Whoever turns up his nose at nine and asks for ten loses the nine too."

His wife nodded: "And those nine coins were in a dream. Our real nine coins are in the cellar: a jar of flour, a basket of eggs, and the apple tree in the garden. Let's be thankful for them."

That day the Hodja went out into the garden, sat under the apple tree and ate an apple. "Sweeter than nine coins," he said.

This story tells us: whoever cannot be content with what they have often loses what they have too. Greed gains a person nothing, not even in a dream; but thankfulness makes a person wake up rich every morning.