Short Story: Mullah Nasruddin lends money to his stingy cousin, but then loses both his time, and his money too.

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For weeks, and weeks, the Mullah's cousin, Abner, had been pestering him to lend him some money, so that he could buy himself a new donkey, as his other one had died, when it had broken its leg badly in a fall, and it had had to be put down. Finally, to stop the pestering, and the wasting of his precious moments, he gave his cousin, the whole price of the new donkey, in lira. The cousin was supposed to pay him back within 6 months, after he had gotten his business back on track, as he used the donkey for carting water to various customers. Six months went by, and the cousin, telephoned the Mullah, on his new cell phone. He was in the bank, and he wanted to know the Mullah's account details, as he planned to pay back some of his loan now. The Mullah gratefully gave him these details. Twenty minutes later, the cousin rang him again from the bank. "The queue is very long," he said. "I am too busy a man to be waiting around in queues. I will try again next week," he said. I am with my donkey again now, as I left it tied to the lamppost. We are walking home together. Then he proceeded to sweet-talk the Mullah all of his twenty minutes walk home. Not only had he not repaid the Mullah's money, now he had stolen another twenty minutes of the Mullah's precious time too. The Mullah never did look like ever getting his money back, any of it. Twelve months went by, then it stretched out to two long years. Then this donkey having been worked into the bone, also died, and the cousin took off for a sunnier climate, in another faraway village. The Mullah pursued him though, and he found him one day, selling pancakes, in the mall, of a large shopping precinct. The Mullah run up to him, and he fiercely throttled him around the throat, knocking the guy right down to the ground. Then he took over the business, and pocketed the money by selling the pancakes all within an hour, at half their normal price. He had had enough as he ate the last one himself, and he decided that he would cut the rest of his losses, as a pancake tells its tale better than a donkey could wag its tale, if it is eaten by customers, not donkeys. The Mullah looked around, and he spoke out his wisdom to the gathered crowd, who had seen the throttling, and had subsequently bought all of the pancakes too. "Love lives in the customer who eats pancakes, and in the donkey, who works faithfully for its owner, but there was no love in this cousin of mine, who fleeced me skint for two long years, without his paying me back, even a one skinny dime." "May he never sell another pancake as long as he lives. His donkeys deserved better than to be owned by this man." Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com Abner, and his donkey. Abner was as stubborn as a mule, and as stupid as his donkey, if he had thought that he could win out over the Mullah.