Humor Sufi

Restoring the Moon - Flour on the Clothesline

15. Restoring the Moon

One night the Hodja looked into his well and saw there the reflection of the full moon.

"Oh no!" he exclaimed. "The moon has fallen from the sky and into my well!"

He ran into his house and returned with a hook attached to a rope. He then threw the hook into the water and commenced to pull it up again, but it became stuck on the side of the well. Frantically the Hodja tugged and pulled with all his might. The hook suddenly came loose, and the Hodja fell over backwards, landing flat on his back. Scarcely able to move, he looked up into the sky and saw the full moon above him.

"I may have injured myself in doing so," he said with satisfaction, "but at least I got the moon back into the sky where it belongs."

16. Flour on the Clothesline

A neighbor came to the Hodja's door and asked to borrow a clothesline.

"Let me ask my wife," replied the Hodja, disappearing inside.

He returned a short time later with the answer, "I am sorry, dear friend, but we cannot lend you our clothesline, for we have sprinkled flour on it."

"When would a person ever sprinkle flour on a clothesline?" asked the neighbor in disbelief.

"When someone else wanted to borrow it," was the Hodja's answer.