Teaching a Donkey to Read

One day Timur was given a fine donkey as a gift. Timur liked the donkey very much. "This donkey is so clever that it's almost like a person," he told the people around him. Nasreddin Hodja was there too. "Sir, if this donkey is that clever, I could even teach it to read," he said.

Timur laughed: "Is that so, Hodja? Go on, teach it. And if you can't, you know what will happen to you." The Hodja did not flinch: "I'll teach it, sir. But I'll need ten years and enough barley to last ten years." Timur agreed.

As they left the palace, the Hodja's friends said, "Hodja, have you gone mad? Can a donkey read? In ten years you'll lose your head." The Hodja laughed: "Don't worry. In ten years, either I'll die, or the donkey will die, or Timur will die. And until then, the donkey and I will both eat plenty of barley."

But the Hodja did not just sit around. He took a thick book and put grains of barley between the pages. He opened the book in front of the donkey. To eat the barley, the donkey turned the page with its tongue and found more barley on the next page, so it turned that one too. The Hodja did this every day. After a few months, the donkey turned the pages with its tongue as soon as it saw the book.

One day Timur wanted to see the donkey's lesson. The Hodja set the book in front of the donkey, but this time he put no barley inside. The donkey turned the pages one by one, and when it found no barley it lifted its head at every page and brayed, "Hee-haw, hee-haw!"

Timur was astonished: "Hodja, what is the donkey doing?" The Hodja answered seriously: "It's reading the book, sir. But it still reads letter by letter. It has learned 'hee' and 'haw', and the rest will come in time."

Timur laughed until he fell over. "Hodja, you couldn't teach the donkey to read, but you taught me to laugh," he said, and he gave the Hodja a purse of gold.

This story tells us: in a difficult situation, staying calm and thinking clearly can save a person from even the greatest trouble.