90. The King's
Repartee
King Nassreddin was
conspicuously famous for his wit and eloquence. Once three wise man came to
examine the intelligence of the king. The first wise man asked, “Where is the
exact centre of the world?” The king replied, “Under my right foot.” “How can
you prove?” asked the man. Then the king replied, “If you don't believe,
measure and see.” The man became silent; now it was the turn of the 2nd man. He
asked, “How many stars are there in the sky?” The king replied, “As many as
there are hairs on my donkey.” The wise man asked, “How you can say that?” “If
you don't believe me, go and count the hairs of my donkey.” The wise man could
not say anything. Now the third man came forward to ask, “How many hairs are
there in your donkey's tail?” “There are as many hairs in its tail as there are
in your beard,” the king replied. The man again said, “How do you know that?”
“You can pull one hair out of my donkey's tail for each I pull out of your
beard. If the hairs on my donkey's tail do not come to an end exactly at the
same time as the hairs in your beard, I will admit that I was wrong,” the king
replied.
Moral: Silly questions should be solved with cleverness.
TAGS: language development in children, Inspirational Moral Stories, very short stories with morals, stories to read for kids.