Short Story: The gopher in the house
By emptychair
@innertalks (23745)
Australia
October 10, 2020 11:29pm CST
Since the Mullah Nasruddin's father-in-law had been staying more-or-less permanently now in the Mullah's house, certain items of common use had been going missing.
For one thing, the Mullah's daily newspaper was never to be found anymore.
(The old father-in-law had set up an arrangement with the delivery guy, to knock on his window from the outside, when he delivered it, and hand it to the old man, through his bedroom window. Newspapers then piled up in the bottom of the old man's wardrobe, after he had read them, but nobody else in the house could read them now).
Then, the tissue box on the coffee table in the TV room was never there now either.
(The father-in-law had them all stashed away in his built-in-wardrobe space. He loved to keep a large supply for himself, as he had heard of the epidemic in the area, which made them hard to obtain for now).
Kitchen scissors, spoons, cups, saucers, packets of biscuits, even cleaning cloths, all found their way into the old man's room.
He was a real gopher. He would go for this, and go for that. There was now a gopher in the Mullah's house.
The most annoying thing that he took though, was the large cooking saucepan, from the Mullah's wife's kitchen cupboard.
It was found under his bed, one day, by the Mullah's wife, and we will not mention here what it was being used for, but it wasn't a pleasant use, or a nice sight, when she found it half full of some type of watery yellow, foul-smelling liquid.
The Mullah took it all in his stride though.
The Mullah was asked how he kept his cool in spite of all of the angst being caused to him by his father-in-law in his house.
He winked, as he said,
"I daily commit suicide with my mind, but my heart always resurrects me. That's what enough love can do for anyone else too."
Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com
If you feed a gopher, it will always stick around your house.
The Mullah's gopher was being well-fed, and would stay there for a long time to come.
3 people like this
3 responses
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
11 Oct 20
starve a gopher feed a migrating bird.
first, the lesson made me stop, then laugh, the give pause.
the reality of human behavior is interesting.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
11 Oct 20
Yes, reality is often more funny than fiction.
That's why I like to capture these moments, when I see them happening in my real life, and write them up as humour here, with just a small amount of exaggeration added.
3 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
12 Oct 20
@DocAndersen Thanks, Scott. I try to make it worth reading.
@DocAndersen (54399)
• United States
12 Oct 20
@innertalks well i enjoy these types of posts, as well as your other more thought-provoking pieces!
2 people like this
@piyushbhatia1 (11695)
• India
12 Oct 20
@innertalks One day the father in law would bring a car under his bed
2 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
12 Oct 20
@piyushbhatia1 Yes, but he would have to remove the chicken coop that he has there now first.
Also, being dark and dingy there, and having the right smells, he has started to grow mushrooms there too, in a large cardboard box.
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
11 Oct 20
Perhaps not the saucepan though...lol..I doubt if that will even be used as a real saucepan again.
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
11 Oct 20
@Shiva49 Yes, the old people, used to use these years ago, and the old father-in-law, was upset in his own ways, that his son-in-law, had not provided him with one, during his stay in their house.
He was expected to walk the few steps to his own guest toilet, just across from the hallway, from his own room, only a few short steps away, and which the Mullah, and his wife, had expected him to use.
2 people like this
