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Autumn is the right season to tell the rich from the poor. At harvest time, the wealthy count their sacks but the poor count their days. This reminds me of a story: It so happens that one autumn Nasreddin was appointed cadi of Aksehir. With the eagerness of the new broom, the fresh judge was impatient to clean the town of all the wrongs. Khadidja, his wife came from the market and told him: “This morning I saw a man in rags falling down in a faint by the melon stall. So meagre he was! This is not right. The poor get poorer every day and the rich get richer. Why let some people hungry and angry while their neighbours lie sick with fatness? This earth under our feet can feed all the people aplenty. And what good is heaping up coins on top of other coins? You must go and tell everybody to share like real brethren and true believers. Hodja loved the idea. He was out the whole next day to talk with people, man to man, one by one, house by house, market, bath and caravanserai, not forgetting the mosque. He explained everyone the duty of sharing until his throat got sore. Late evening Nasreddin got home exhausted but satisfied. “Woman, he said, half of the work is done. In only one day I convinced all the poor of the town. Now it only remains to do the other half and to convince the rich”

(c) Copyright 1998-2004 Ioan Tenner