It wouldn’t be right to accuse him of pride or vanity, but Mullah Nasruddin always does his best to maintain good appearances, even when he does not have a penny to his name. Therefore when a friend approached him in the market and asked him to change a dirham for him, Nasruddin found himself in a dilemma.

“Mullah,” said the friend, “look, I have this dirham but I need to change it for smaller coins. Just do me a favour and change it, will you?”

But the Mullah at that moment did not have anything in his pocket except a house key. Not wanting to say so, he took the dirham, studied it seriously for a moment, turning it one way and then another, and then finally handed it back. “It’s a bad coin,” he said.

“Bad?” said the friend, horrified. “You mean, counterfeit?”

“Ah, no, not counterfeit. But I assure you, it is bad. Look, the edges are rubbed.'”

Thinking that he could now make his escape Nasruddin wanted to walk away, but the friend stopped him. “Then don’t give me the full value,” he said. “I don’t mind.”

Reluctantly, Nasruddin took the coin again and studied it some more. Then he shook his head sadly. “My friend,” he said, “as an honest mullah, I tell you it is such a bad coin that you would have to give extra money for me to take it at all.”