It happened once upon a time that an elephant belonging to the king broke free from its enclosure and wandered into the fields around the village where Mullah Nasruddin lived. There it did great damage to all the crops, and the villagers became very angry. They gathered together to discuss what to do, and finally, after a lot of shouting, it was decided that they would all march together to the palace of the king and demand that the elephant be removed, and that they would even be recompensed for the damage. To lead them, they selected the Mullah.

The whole village set out, with Nasruddin in the lead, marching along the road to the palace and waving their arms in the air. As they approached the palace though, some of them began to think again about confronting the king, and one by one those behind the Mullah remembered something else they had to do, and dropped quietly away from the group. By the time Nasruddin arrived at the palace, he was alone.

The King had come out onto the steps of the palace, and he was in a bad mood. “What do you want, Mullah?” he growled.

Discovering that there was no one behind him, Nasruddin said nervously, “Ah, your majesty, you see, it seems that one of your elephants is in the fields around our village.”

“Yes? So what?” said the King.

“Well, we, ah, we thought he might be missing the other elephants, you see…”

“And so?”

“So,” stammered Nasruddin, “perhaps you could send another elephant to keep it company!”