It happened once upon a time that the people of Nasruddin’s village got into a great discussion. Perhaps that is the only talent that they really have – to argue about things. This time, they were discussing where is the proper place to walk in a funeral.

‘Obviously,’ some said, ‘it is proper to walk in front of the coffin. Otherwise, the living would be following the dead, which is incorrect!’

‘Nonsense,’ retorted others. “If you walk in front, it looks like you are trying to hurry the dead person to the cemetery. An obvious lack of respect!’

Still others proposed that the correct place would be beside the coffin. ‘We pray shoulder to shoulder,’ they said, ‘so we should make that final journey in the same way.’ But the roads of that village are not so wide, and some might have to struggle through rocks and bushes and thorns. Besides – there might be some important meaning in whether one walked on the left side or the right side of the deceased. Family on one side and friends on the other? Which? It got more and more complicated.

Finally, they went to the Mullah, to ask his advice – where to be in the funeral?

The Mullah said, “Wherever you like, as long as you are not IN the coffin.”