The Man Who Sawed Off the Branch He Sat On

One day, as Nasreddin Hodja was walking through his orchard, he saw a man. The man had climbed a tree, sat down on a branch and was sawing off the very branch he was sitting on. And right at the base, close to the trunk.

The Hodja called out: "Friend, you are cutting the branch you are sitting on, you will fall."

The man said, "Mind your own business," and went on sawing. The Hodja shrugged and went on his way.

A little later there was a "crack," and then a "thump." The man had fallen to the ground together with the branch. He got up at once and ran after the Hodja: "Hodja! Hodja! You knew I would fall. You are a fortune-teller! Tell me, when will I die?"

The Hodja stopped and looked at the man. The man kept insisting. "Very well," said the Hodja. "When your donkey brays three times, you will die."

The man got on his donkey in fear and set off for home. On the way the donkey brayed once. The man's face went pale. It brayed twice. The man began to tremble. When it brayed three times, the man cried "I'm dead!", threw himself on the ground and shut his eyes.

The villagers found him on the road. "What happened?" they said. Without opening his eyes the man said, "I am dead, the Hodja said so." The villagers called the Hodja. The Hodja came and looked at the man: "Friend, I told you not to cut the branch you sat on, and you didn't listen. Now I tell you to die when the donkey brays, and you listen. A person has to know what to listen to."

The man got up and went home in shame. Never again did he saw off the branch he sat on, nor count the braying of his donkey.