TEACHING STORIES

Teaching stories may relate events that are funny, foolish, bemusing, sometimes even apparently stupid, but they usually have deeper meanings.

A good teaching story has several levels of meaning and interpretation and offers us opportunities to think in new ways. At first you may just have a good laugh but as you reflect on the story, the significance becomes more and more profound.

A teaching story veils its knowledge and as you ruminate, the walls of its outer meanings crumble away and the beauty of the previously invisible inner wisdom is revealed, and you begin to identify yourself in the story, and to acknowledge that you too could be as foolish or as lacking in discernment as the characters in these classic tales.

An example of the concept of teaching stories is embodied in the “wisdom” tales of the inimitable Mulla Nasrudin narrated by Sufis to illustrate finer aspects of human behaviour which are relevant to both our personal and professional lives.

You can reflect, introspect or take them with a pinch of salt – the choice is yours! After reading this you may ask me: “You relate stories, but you do not tell us how to understand them” – to which I will reply:” How would you like it if the shopkeeper from whom you bought a banana peeled it, ate the deliciously nourishing fruit before your eyes, leaving you only the skin?”

One of the great bonuses in learning through humour is that even as you have a good time and doubt that you have learned anything, the lessons penetrate subtly, permeate within and stay with you, to come alive when the need arises.

If you are a serious type, devoid of a sense of humour, please skip this and move on to more profound and sombre reading. This is fun. Enjoy yourself, dear reader, and try to identify yourself in the apocryphal stories.

TRAFFIC DISCIPLINE

Rushing to work on his motorcycle Nasrudin jumped a red light. He was promptly stopped by a Traffic Policeman, who asked Nasrudin to pay Rs.100.

“What for? Why should I pay Rs.100?” Nasrudin asked.

“It’s a fine. For breaking the traffic rules. You jumped the red light,” said the cop.

“Okay,” Nasrudin said, “You owe me five hundred rupees. Give me Rs.500.”

“What nonsense?” shouted the infuriated cop. “Why should I pay you Rs.500?”

“For the six times I correctly crossed the green lights, you owe me Rs.600. From that you deduct your fine of Rs.100. That means you owe me Rs.500,” said a nonchalant Nasrudin. “If you punish me for doing the wrong thing, you must reward me for doing the right thing.”

THE RIGHT SOLUTION

Strolling on a beach, Nasrudin noticed some fishermen huddled lighting a fire near a wooden boat, and curious, he asked a them what it was for.

“We are melting tar,” said a fisherman.

“Tar?” Nasrudin asked confused.

“Yes, we are making tar to cover the cracks in the underside of the boat. That makes the vessels go faster.”

Nasrudin rushed straight home and made a bonfire. Then he tied up his donkey and melted some tar in a pan. As soon as he brought the smoking tar near the animal, it broke loose, ran like the wind and disappeared over the horizon.

“It works all right!” reflected Mulla Nasrudin.


GRIEF

The donkey did not return for many days and Nasrudin was overcome with grief.

“You may have lost your donkey, Mulla Nasrudin, but you don’t have to grieve over it more than you did about the loss of your first wife.”

“Ah,” Nasrudin said, “if you remember when I lost my wife, all you villagers consoled me and said: ‘We will find you someone else.’ So far, nobody has offered to replace my donkey.”


FASHION SHOW

One day Nasrudin went to a fashion show and his friends asked him how he liked it.

“They cheat you,” Nasrudin complained, “They show you the women – and then they try to sell you the clothes.”


TIP

Nasrudin went to a posh restaurant and ordered a cup of coffee. He was dressed in ordinary clothes and received no attention. While leaving he left a tip of one thousand rupees.

The next day he came dressed in a three-piece suit. The waiters and all the staff lavished him with the highest attention thinking they would receive an even more generous tip.

After thoroughly enjoying the pampering, Nasrudin left a tip of just one rupee, saying: "This is for the service you gave me yesterday, the thousand rupees were for the service today."

Hope you enjoyed the stories

VIKRAM KARVE

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

vikramkarve@sify.com