It happened once upon a time that Mullah Nasruddin owed a certain businessman a sum of money. Was it a large sum? That depends. If you have such a sum, you will say it is not very much. If you don’t have it, and are expected to pay it, you will say it is the size of a mountain. As time went by and the Mullah did not return the money, the man finally took Nasruddin to court. There, he told the judge that the Mullah had owed him the debt for a long time, and the judge should order hm to pay it back immediately.

“Is it true that you owe this amount?” the judge asked Nasruddin.

“Yes, your honour,” the Mullah replied, “I do owe the man this money, but it will take time to pay him back. In order to raise this amount of money, I will have to sell my cow.”

The man jumped up and shouted in protest, “You honour, he is lying! He has no cow!”

“Then I will sell mat horse,” said Nasruddin.

“Again a lie! He has no horse either! Your honour, I happen to know that he even has no food in the house to feed the children, so where would he get a cow or a horse?”

“Your honour,” Nasruddin said to the judge, “if I am as poor as this man says I am, why does he think you can order me to pay him immediately?”