Once in the country where Mulla Nasreddin lived, such an incident occurred. The king was there looking for the sage. His former sage died with the words: “When you select a replacement for me, find the most humble person in the entire kingdom, because ego is unnatural to wisdom. Modesty is wisdom, so find the most humble person.”
Secret agents were sent throughout the kingdom to identify the most humble person in the kingdom. Eventually, they reached the village where Nasreddin lived. He had already heard the news that the old sage had passed away, and he thought hard about what could be the decisive factor in choosing a new sage. He read a lot, and he knew the ancient legend that the humblest person is the wisest. Therefore, he quite logically came to the conclusion that the elder must have ordered to find the most humble person.
And then the king’s detectives arrived. Mulla Nasrudin was a very rich man, but when they saw him, the richest man in this town, he was carrying fishing nets, returning from the river. And in this village, fishing was considered the most modest and unprestigious activity. So they thought, “This man seems to be quite humble.” And they asked Nasreddin a question:
- Tell me, why do you carry nets with you? You are a rich man, why on earth would you go fishing?
“I got rich thanks to fishing,” Nasreddin explained to them. — I started my life as a fisherman. This is how I got rich, but in order to somehow thank my former profession for giving me so much, I always carry this network on my shoulder.
What a truly humble man! Usually, if a poor person gets rich, he tries to completely erase his past so that no one even knows that he was once poor. He discards everything that reminds him of his former need. He refuses to see his relatives; he does not want to be reminded of the past in any way. He creates a new past for himself so that everyone is sure that he was born an aristocrat. But this man remained modest as before. Therefore, the messengers reported to the king that Mulla Nasreddin turned out to be the most modest person they had ever seen. So he was appointed a sage.
On the day of his appointment, he threw away his net. People who recommended it were amazed:
- Nasreddin, where is your network?
“When the fish is caught,” he answered them, “the net is thrown away.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru