THE THREE EQUALS

When a problem is too complicated to solve - and when that leaves me stressed out – I seek help from my old friend, that ‘wise-fool’ – Mullah Nasruddin. 

One night, Mullah was in another village. He saw a man frantically searching for something under the street lamp.

“What are you searching for, my friend?” Mullah asked the stranger.

“A gold coin,” replied the stranger.

Mullah joined the stranger in searching for the gold coin. After searching, without any success, for almost an hour, Mullah asked the stranger, “Do you remember, where you lost your coin?”

“Over there,” the stranger pointed across the street.

“Fool, then, why the hell are we searching for it here?” Mullah yelled.

“Because, my wise friend,” the stranger looked at Mullah with disbelief and reasoned, “there is no light over there!” 

Mullah had met his equal!

And, every time I re-visit this story, I seriously feel – I have met my equals. Two of them. Yes, two wise fools!

I know where I have lost my gold coin… Over there.

But, still, I am searing for it ‘here’, because there is light over here!

Mullah, the wise fool,  is angry at the stranger for wasting his time too. “Why the hell are we searching for the coin here?” he yells at the other fool.

And, the other fool, though he knows where the coin is lost, doesn’t look for it there; he looks for it where there is light!

It takes two fools to explain to me the moral of this story: 

“You, the third fool, turn your search-light to the spot where you have lost your coin!”

Wise fools!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Hariprasad