Tuesday 30 October 2007

About giving and taking

You can pronounce all the right words and still not be understood. Use the talk fit to the folk you address. As the sage said, you cannot bring the people to the words, you must bring the words to the people. This reminds me of a story:

St Peter Drowning CC J. Jaritz
Kassim the taxman, the one squeezing the people each autumn for their last dime, fell into the fountain and was about to drawn.

A flock of villagers stretched out helpful hands and shouted interrupting each other:

“Your hand!”
“Come, reach out! Let me have your hand”
“Give me your hand! Quick!”

All this, to no avail. The taxman kept thrashing around, choking and splashing, more and more exhausted.

Now Nasruddin held out his arm and shouted:

“Take my hand, Kassim!”

The man instantly grabbed the hand and was pulled out of the water. To the amazed audience, the Hodja explained the obvious fact:

“Did you ever see a taxman giving? They only know taking.”

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