Timur's Elephant

When Timur came to Aksehir, he brought a huge elephant with him. He let the elephant loose in the villages. The elephant trampled the fields, ate the wheat in the barns and wrecked the vegetable gardens. The villagers were in despair. But they were very afraid of Timur, and nobody dared to complain.

At last the villagers came to Nasreddin Hodja: "Hodja, you come and go at Timur's court. Come with us and let's complain about the elephant. You do the talking, and we'll say 'yes, that's right' behind you." The Hodja agreed: "All right, but don't you dare leave me alone." The villagers promised.

They set off for Timur's palace in a big crowd. But the closer they got to the palace, the more the villagers' courage faded. One said, "I've got work in the field," and turned back. Another said, "I forgot to tie up my donkey," and ran off. When they reached the palace gate, only three people were left behind the Hodja. And when they entered Timur's presence, the Hodja looked behind him: nobody! They had all run away.

"Hodja, what do you want?" asked Timur. The Hodja thought for a moment. If he complained about the elephant all by himself, he might get into trouble. And the villagers had left him in the lurch. The Hodja swallowed hard, then said: "Sir, the villagers love your elephant very much. But the elephant is bored and lonely. If you brought a female elephant too, our villages would be very happy."

Timur was delighted: "Hodja, what a fine idea!" At once he had a female elephant brought. Now not one but two elephants roamed the villages.

The villagers ran to the Hodja's door: "Hodja, what have you done? You were supposed to complain, and you got another elephant!" The Hodja folded his hands: "My friends, you left me alone at the door of the court. A man left alone can only complain this much. If we had gone together, there would be one elephant fewer; when you ran away, there was one elephant more."

The villagers were ashamed. This time they really did all go to the palace together, and nobody ran away. They explained their troubles with one voice. When Timur saw such a crowd, he understood the real situation, sent the elephants away to the mountains and paid for the villagers' losses.

This story tells us: in a just cause, we must stand together. Whoever pushes someone else to the front and then runs away ends up doubling his own trouble.