Short story: The Mullah Nasruddin's wife burns his morning toast, accidentally, not purposefully, this time

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The Mullah's wife, being the daughter of the eccentric old father-in-law, who was now living with the Mullah, and his wife, in their house, had more than a few of his traits in her too. The Mullah used to refer to them as being both as thick as two bricks on a brickies tray, or barrow. One day, for example, the Mullah's wife, Fatima burnt the toast, something bad. Four pieces all burnt, and ruined. She asked the Mullah, "How come the toast burnt? I thought that once it was cooked, it's supposed to spring up and out automatically, switching itself off then." "It does," the Mullah replied, bluntly, stating a fact, that he thought was pretty sensibly obvious. Seeing the still blank look on his wife's face, he offered some further explanatory remarks then too. "But, you also have to look at where the rotatory dial-wheel is set, which determines the level, or the degree of the cooking too." "Your father changed the setting to very dark, or well done." "That's why it burnt, as the setting is now the whole way around the dial. It used to be set at only the quarter-turn mark, as I know that you like your toast only lightly cooked." It was only then that the wife, Fatima, noticed this setting wheel there, on the side of the toaster, near the bottom edge. She told the Mullah that although she had used this toaster for years and years, she had never seen that dialling wheel there before, at all, until now. The toaster used to annoy the Mullah for another reason too. His father-in-law, after using it, always put it away back into the cupboard left uncleaned. He never removed the crumb trays to brush them off of crumbs, not did he give the outer surface a wipe, not even did he take the toaster outside, as the Mullah also did, and turn it upside down, then shake it gently to remove even more crumbs from it. "Maybe that is a good thing, though," the Mullah mused to himself, as he remembered that when he used to shake the toaster more vigorously, when he held it upside down to remove the crumbs, it had eventually broken on him from such rough treatment, that he was sure his father-in-law would do to his toaster too. The old man was as rough as raw guts. "The old man thinks that he is helping me, I suppose, by at least his putting the toaster away," the Mullah thought thoughtfully to himself. But every time he does so, the Mullah takes it back out again to clean it himself. The Mullah realised that both his wife, and his father-in-law, never saw what was right in front of their noses; they preferred to keep looking at only their own noses instead. The Mullah had burnt toast for his breakfast, and this time, his wife didn't even mean to do it! Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com