The experience of Mullah Nasruddin is much wider than people think. In his youth, for example, he once served a Sufi shaikh, thinking that he might learn something useful. He soon discovered that the shaikh was very demanding, requiring Nasruddin to spend his days cleaning the khankah, washing the clothes, weeding the garden, cooking the food – in short, doing everything that was required. And above all, he insisted that Nasruddin should not sleep in the daytime, even in the heat of the day.

“Day is for action,” he told his young student. “Sleeping is for the night – but only after you finish your prayers!”

In spite of this instruction, though, Nasruddin soon discovered that every day the shaikh himself spent part of the afternoon stretched on a divan with his eyes closed, in an attitude that in any other person would look like profound sleep.

When Nasruddin asked his master if he was sleeping during the day, the shaikh said, “No, no – this is meditation. I go to heaven and converse with the prophets.”

A few days later, when the Sufi rose from his usual meditation, he discovered Nasruddin lying on the carpet, snoring.

“Nasruddin!” the shaikh shouted, giving his student a kick, “Haven’t I told you not sleep in the daytime?”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” Nasruddin said, sitting up. “I was meditating. Conversing with the prophets.”

“Oh, yes?” said the shaikh scornfully. “And what was the nature of your conversation? What did the prophets say?”

“I asked them to share the precious wisdom they give you when you see them every day, master,” Nasruddin replied, “but they said they never heard of you.”