It happened once upon a time that Mullah Nasruddin decided to go to the sea for a vacation. Why not? He had never seen the ocean, and a wise mullah should always be expanding his horizons. When the people of his village heard where he was going, they told him, “Be sure to jump in the sea, Mullah. There is nothing like it!”

Therefore, when the Mullah arrived at the seaside, and saw people playing in the shallows, he remembered the advice, walked out to the end of a long pier, and jumped off.

At that point, though, the water was deep, and as Nasruddin had never learned to swim, he would have drowned if he had not been rescued by a friendly fisherman.

When he returned home, his neighbours asked him, “What did you think of the sea, Mullah? How was it?”

“The sea,” said Nasruddin, “is sadly unbalanced.”

“Unbalanced? What do you mean?”

“It could be enjoyable,” Nasruddin replied, “but the problem with the sea is, there’s too much water.”