Don’t ask how it happened, but once upon a time someone found what they thought was a splendid way of making fun of the Mullah Nasruddin. As he sometimes behaves in unusual ways, a certain man suspected that the Mullah was certainly not right in his mind, and decided to test his theory. While Nasruddin was sitting in the village square, this rogue approached him and offered him his choice between a larger and a smaller coin. After stroking his beard thoughtfully, the Mullah smiled and chose the coin of lesser value–to the great delight of the other man.

Soon, the news had spread all over the village that the Mullah was so foolish that he would take a coin of lesser value, and first one person and then another came to test him–always with the same result.

Finally, one man who had seen what was going on took pity on the Mullah, and said to him, “Mullah, why do you take the smaller coin? You should take the bigger coin. Then you would have more, and they would stop laughing at you.”

Nasruddin looked at the man for a moment, and then said, “Friend, if I took the larger coin, do you think they would continue to offer me money?”