The Sweetest Strawberry the World Has Ever Known!

Nasreddin must cross a desert and a jungle to go to his friend's village. The desert was easy to cross and just need twelve days under the burning sun until he meet the Jungle.

The jungle has a narrow path, and on either side was thick and noisy, a way that made Nasreddin feel a little nervous. But his love to Tekka,his friend, made him had to go.

Then he started off through the jungle, and the path was not so bad when his eyes got used to the gloom. Nasreddin was walking happily along, when he heard a noise behind him: "shahh... shahh... shahh." He looked over his shoulder, and saw, to his surprise, a tiger was also taking a walk through the jungle!

"Ah," He said to himself, "which was the best I could do in the circumstances". Then Nasreddin had a thought, which was fortunate. "It is never too late to begin an exercise regimen. Why not start with jogging, for your health, that is."

So there he was, jogging through the jungle, enjoying what remained to him of his health, when he heard a sound behind him: "shahh...shahh...shahh."

Nasreddin looked over his shoulder again, and – what do you know!– the tiger had also taken up jogging! Although he think the tiger was less interested in excersise, and more interested in nutrition!

Due to the beneficial effects of exercise, Nasreddin brain was functioning more efficiently. "If you can jog, surely you can run," he told myself. "Why not try for a world record?" It's amazing how quickly you can come to an agreement with yourself. Nasreddin began immediately to see if He could set a new world record for land speed running. He tore through that jungle as if the path were a highway.

The Value of Truth

‘If you want truth’, Nasrudin told a group of Seekers who had come to hear his teachings, ‘you will have to pay for it.’

‘But why should you have to pay for something like truth?’ asked one of the company.

‘Have you noticed’, said Nasrudin, ‘that it is the scarcity of a thing which determines its value?’

Nasreddin was certain a world record was within his grasp, if only a judge with a stopwatch had been there. And when He heard a familiar sound behind him, which He probably don't have to explain sounded like "shhahh-shhahh-shhahh," He didn't even have to stop and look to know the tiger was also bent on setting a world record.

So there they were, the two athletes running like the wind through the jungle! It was thrilling! It was exciting! It was terrifying! Suddenly, there was no jungle!
There was no path either, only the blue sky, and a cliff, and Nasruddin, falling down it. He said, "Aaauughh!!" but it did no good. So he grabbed onto a bush.
(Did you ever notice, every single time you fall down a cliff, there's a bush to grab onto. Check it out for yourself!)

So after grabbed this bush, and held on for dear life,Nasreddin clung to it with all his strength, which he needed, because there was the tiger looking down at him, saying "shhahh...shhahh...shhahh." "Don't you know any other words?" Nasruddin said. Apparently not, because the tiger continued to say the same thing over and over.

Nasreddin looked desperately about him for a way out, and could find none. Then He noticed the roots of the bush begin to pull out of the cliff, one by one.

"Nasruddin," he said, and he have a little song he sing to himself when he is in trouble, which seems to be more and more often these days, "Nasruddin, you have been in better sit-u-a-tions." It's a nice little song, very comforting. It certainly helped at that moment.

Then he heard a sound behind and below him that sounded strangely familiar: "shhahh...shhahh...shhahh."

"Wait!" he said to himself, "I thought I left that sound safely up above!" Nasreddin looked down, and saw that the bad always comes with the good. Why is that, do you think? The good was that the cliff was not very high, and he would not be hurt if he fell. The bad was the other tiger standing below him, looking up!

There he was, hanging on the face of a cliff from a bush whose roots were pulling out, with a tiger above him and a tiger below him. Nasreddin thought it was a good moment for his little song, so he sang again, "Nasruddin, you have been/ in better sit-u-a-tions." It had its effect – his head was clear, and he cast about desperately for a way out of his predicament. I assure you I didn't think of the word predicament at the time.

Nasreddin looked on both sides, and suddenly spied a little green bush, with a single red berry. It was a wild strawberry! Now, his philosophy is always to enjoy yourself to the fullest, wherever you are. So he got a good grip with his toes, which are considerable, and held the bush with one hand, and reached out, risking all, and picked that strawberry.

And did he eat it? Oh, yes, my beloveds, he did. And he is here to tell you that if you are hanging on a cliff from a bush that is pulling out by the roots, and there is a tiger above you and a tiger below you, and you find a strawberry and you eat it, that will be the sweetest strawberry the world has ever known!

* * *
But wait...what about the tigers, and the cliff? How is he here to tell the tale? Well, here it is: they were nearsighted tigers, and when they got a close look at Nasreddin, they lost their appetites.