Short story: The most wanted, and the most talked about man, in Hortu Village.

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Mullah Nasruddin's father-in-law, Abdullah, had been staying with the Mullah, and his wife, Fatima, for the best part of a year now. The way that the Mullah was handling this situation, was a great subject of the idle talk in the village. The Mullah's weekly talks at the mosque, every Saturday night, were now mostly about his adventures with his father-in-law, and how he was gaining insights into people's characters, and of how to handle, such "hard to handle people" too. Anyways, the Mullah's brother-in-law, Idrimah, was not happy with this exhibitionary showing up of his dear father, making him almost the laughing stock of the small village. He suggested to his sister, Fatima, that the old man come and live with him, and his wife, for a while now, instead of him continuing to stay at his sister's house. At first, when the Mullah heard about this proposal, he rubbed his hands together in glee. He would, at last, be rid of this "creeper", as he had nick-named the old man, who had a creepy habit, of creeping around, and creeping up behind you, and then standing right behind you, sort of in a sentry position, and looking out into space blankly. Sometimes, it took a while to notice him there, and the Mullah used to jump up in surprise, each time that he was caught again unawares. Then the Mullah thought more deeply, and he changed his mind, about this. The Mullah realised that since the old man was here in his house, he was not nagged, or pecked on so much by the resident "magpie", his wife, as he had nicknamed her. In fact, he had figured he was only getting about 50 per cent now of what he used to cop before. The old man copped most of it now instead. Fatima was ruthless with him to the extreme. She was even harder on the poor old guy, that she was on the Mullah, himself, which was no mean feat to accomplish, the Mullah, mused to himself. The Mullah thought about a few things now: The father-in-law was now always blamed for the empty cookie jar. He was also blamed for the increased use of the soft drinks, delivered now daily, rather than weekly, to the house. When the kettle was boiled for his, the father-in-law's morning coffee, the wife was livid with him. The kettle would always automatically shut itself off when its water boiled, but the father-in-law always forgot to also turn the plug off at the wall. He left the power switch on there, which Fatima claimed was costing them money in electricity costs. Plus, the father-in-law always filled the kettle up to the very brim, and he was only ever just making one small cup of coffee for himself. The wife told him off for wasting both power and water here. Then there was the cleanliness of the house. The old man was worse than the Mullah ever was in this department. When he ate, crumbs, and pieces of food fell onto the floor, and the table, and also onto his clothes too, which the wife had to wash for him. He always left the bathroom, and the toilet dirty, too. Then, there was the Mullah's dog. The old man used to like to help the household, by washing the dog's food and water bowls. The problem was that he washed them in the family's kitchen sink, with the good dishcloth, and then, he always placed them away, in the kitchen cupboard, with the clean cutlery of the family too. Fatima, the wife, always screamed at the Mullah, "Where did you put the infernal dog's bowls now?" The Mullah, glad that he had somebody else to blame now, would always reply, in his sweetest of voice tones. "Well, dear, I did see your father washing them yesterday. Maybe, it is best if you go and ask him." Now, the Mullah, amongst his other expertises, was a master of the ancient art of soapdish reading. He thought that he would let this oracle make up his mind for him, as to whether he should support his father-in-law leaving, or staying. He looked at the soap dish in his father-in-law's bathroom. He was surprised indeed to see a small cross shape in there. The Mullah, being versed in the ideas of most other religions, as well as his own, knew the significance of the cross to some religions. He knew that this meant that he should bear his own cross, and let the old man go for a while. For after all, perhaps the poor old chap was sick of this constant heckling and nagging of himself too, and so he did deserve a holiday from this for a while. The Mullah's mind was made up. He told his wife, that he agreed on her brother's proposal to look after the father-in-law in his house for a while now too. Sometimes, it's better the devil you know, than the devil you do not know, but in the Mullah's case, he had the luxury of being able to pass the Devil onto another place, to somebody else, and so lose a bit of his influencing annoyance for now, but he did lose some of his actual usefulness too. He could no longer blame the devil for his own misdemeanours now again. Photo Credit: The photo used here belongs to me, the author, of this piece The Mullah was an expert in the gentle art of soap-dish reading.