The Road to Baghdad

One day Nasreddin Hodja was sitting in the shade of a tree by the roadside. A traveller came up: "Hodja, I'm going to Baghdad. How long will it take me to get there along this road?"

The Hodja looked at the traveller and said nothing. The traveller repeated his question: "Hodja, I'm asking you, how long will it take me to get to Baghdad?" The Hodja stayed silent again. "This old man is either deaf or rude," muttered the traveller, and he began to walk away.

When the traveller had gone about twenty steps, the Hodja called after him: "My boy! If you walk at that speed, you'll reach Baghdad in seven days!"

The traveller stopped and turned back: "Hodja, couldn't you have told me that at the start? Why did you wait until I'd walked off?"

The Hodja smiled: "My boy, how could I know how you walk before you started walking? A fast walker gets there in three days, and a slow one in ten. First I wanted to see your steps."

The traveller was surprised by this answer and laughed. He came and sat down beside the Hodja. The Hodja gave him a glass of water and took an apple out of his saddlebag for him. "And my boy," he said, "don't keep worrying about how long the road will take. Take one step, then another. The road gets shorter as you walk it."

The traveller thanked the Hodja and set off again. This time he walked more cheerfully and more quickly. He reached Baghdad not in seven days but in five. When he had finished his business in Baghdad, on his way back he passed that same tree again. The Hodja was there. "Hodja, I got there in five days!" he said. The Hodja laughed: "You see? When you walked cheerfully, the road felt shorter."

This story tells us: how long a job takes depends a great deal on how we do it. Instead of worrying before we begin, we should start taking steps.