On his way from Persia to India, Mulla Nasrudin saw a man selling a small long green fruit which he had never seen before. Curious, he asked the vendor: “What is this lovely fruit?”
“Chillies. Fresh Green Chillies,” said the Vendor.
Mulla Nasrudin gave the vendor a gold coin and the Vendor was so overjoyed that he gave Nasrudin the full basket of green Chillies.
Mulla Nasrudin sat down under a tree and started to munch the Chillies and within a few seconds, his mouth was burning. Tears streamed down his cheeks, his nose watered copiously and there was fire his throat.
But, utterly nonchalant, Nasrudin went on eating the chillies and his condition began to get worse and worse.
Seeing his pitiable condition, a passerby asked, “What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you stop eating those hot Chillies?”
“May be there is one that is sweet, “Nasrudin answered. “I keep waiting for the sweet one!” Nasrudin said and he kept on eating the fiery Chillies.
On his way back, the passerby saw that Mulla Nasrudin’s condition had become even more terrible, but he kept on eating, and the basket of Chillies was almost empty.
“Stop at once or you will die. There are no sweet Chillies!” the passerby shouted at Nasrudin.
“I cannot stop until I have finished the whole basketful,” Nasrudin said, croaking in agony, “I have paid for the full basket, I am not eating Chillies anymore. I am eating my money”.
Dear Reader – Read this story once more, think about it, let the story perambulate in your mind, reflect on it, and apply it to your life. Don’t we cling on to things that we know we should let go [at first hoping to find ‘sweet one’ and even when we discover that there is no ‘sweet chilli’ we still continue to shackle and bind ourselves to material things, memories and persons who we know are painful, harmful and detrimental just to ‘get our money’s worth’ when we should ‘let go’ and liberate ourselves].
VIKRAM KARVE
http://karve.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/05/book-review-tales-of-the-dervishes.htm
