Short Story: Washing dishes, by not washing them. A tale about Mullah Nasruddin's father-in-law.

Tweet

The Mullah's father-in-law had been told off by the Mullah's wife for wasting water, and dishwashing detergent, whenever he washed his own plates and cutlery. He would let the water run continuously without stopping, even when, he stopped washing a dish to dry it, and to place it into the cupboard, he left the tap still pouring out its water, full bore. Of course, it, (the plate, and anything else that he had attempted to have washed), always went into the wrong spot too, in the cupboard, or the drawer too, and it was never cleaned properly either. Something sticky was always still stuck to the plate, or to the knife, or to the fork. The dishwashing sponge was always totally saturated with dishwashing liquid, as well. He used almost a cupful every time to just wash one plate, and 2 pieces of cutlery. After the wife, and the Mullah too, had told him off a few times, the cunning old guy though, simply then placed his dirty dishes, directly into the cupboard then, without even washing them at all. It took a while for the wife to notice this nasty, vindictive, spiteful action of the father-in-law, but when she found an extra few mice and ants in her cupboards, she looked around in there, and she was appalled at what she had seen. The old guy was more carefully monitored after that. Before the wife had noticed this exasperating practise of her father, a nasty little incident had played itself out in their home, though. The Turkish Prime Minister, and his assistant, had been invited to a meal at the Mullah's house. He had attended many of the Mullah's Saturday night talks, and as a spiritual man himself, he wanted to get closer up to the Mullah, himself. His assistant had asked the Mullah, and his wife, if they could come around before the Mullah's talk on Saturday night for lunch. The Mullah's wife cooked up and provided a very nice meal for them all. She used the very best crockery, from her best guestware, from her special cabinet of such pieces of crockery, kept in a special dining room, near the rear of their large property, kept for only special use. The thing was though that the father-in-law had even placed one of his dirty dishes, a dinner plate, into this cabinet with the special use cutlery, and tableware too. Sure, he had used a paper towel, to clean off the food scraps into the bin, but there were still traces of gravy stains left on the plate, because it was not washed, at all, not to mention, that the old guy had actually eaten, and drooled over his food, on this very plate, too. Now Murphy's law, being what it is, dictated that it was the Prime Minister, himself, that got this very plate in front of him to eat his meal off of here ,at the Mullah's large wooden oak dining room table, in his guest dining room. Nobody else did get a dirty plate either. Everybody else had gotten a plate from the special guest collection of cutlery, and tablewear. The father-in-law, sitting at the table with them, as a member of the household, was the only one at the table at first, who knew what had really happened here. He smiled slightly a held-back smirk. He grinned a guilty grin. He wondered if the Prime Minister would notice anything, about that plate. The Mullah, nor his wife, did not notice anything. The wife had asked the Mullah to set the crockery for the guests on the table, so he was the one who had placed that plate there, in front of the Prime Minister. Being in an aware trance, most of the time when he did stuff for his wife though, he did not even look closely at this plate. He thought that his always thinking of higher things, while doing mundane things, was an aspect of his higher awareness. The Prime Minister, though, he did notice, as soon as he sat down. He noticed the brown stain on his plate, which looked like some type of a dirty, dry, gravy stain. He was too polite to say anything that his plate was a dirty one, though. He ate some food from the plate, from the side of it only, that was more clean. In fact, all that he really had was the one piece of Turkish bread. He told the Mullah that he had a stomach ache, and that he had had something earlier that day that, obviously, did not agree with his system. A day, later though, it was all in the local papers, and it also made the National News too. "Mullah serves Prime Minister, Idries Cakir, filth in spades. Dirty cutlery, crockery, dinner plates, unwashed, and filthy, set out for him to eat off." The assistant had leaked the scandal to the press. The Prime Minister had told his assistant quietly about the plate as they had returned to his office, to sort some papers there, that he had to sign, urgently, right away, and which could not wait, until Monday. He had told him to keep it to himself though. The Mullah had served the Prime Minister of the country on a dirty plate. The Mullah never did live this down, but from ever after, after that incident, at least, nobody else in the whole country, ever bothered to ask the Mullah, if they could share a meal with him at his house, ever again. "There is a blessing in every disaster", the Mullah thought to himself, "Maybe that whole episode was set up like that just to give me that food for thought, to see this one great truth about life." Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com The picture is of the plate that the Prime Minister ate off on that fateful day, before he had even started to use it. It was obviously filthy. And to restrain himself from commenting about it must have been very hard for him indeed! But that was the great respect that he had had for the Mullah, from listening to his many spiritual talks, that always moved him, with their deepness, and inner truths.