Prices of the birds Nasreddin Hodja |
One day Hodja was wandering in the marketplace, checking out the stands as he always did. On one of them, he noticed a different bird he had never seen in his life before. A bird with strange colors. A merchant was shouting out its price. - One hundred liras! - One hundred liras for a bird!? said Hodja. Having been startled at the price of the bird, probably good for nothing as he thought, Hodja rushed to his house and fetched his precious turkey over. Finding a place next to the man selling the bird, he began shouting out: - Two hundred liras, two hundred liras for a turkey. People around him started to laugh. An ordinary bird like turkey could never go for a price like that. - But, he is selling that weird, useless one for one hundred liras, Hodja tried to explain. - No!, they said. it is a parrot. - Well, so what ? What does a parrot do ? asked Hodja. - Don't you know Hodja they replied all at once a parrot speaks like a human. Never have expected an answer like this, Hodja paused for a moment and as if he wasn't impressed at all and he went on: - If his parrot speaks, my turkey meditates. |