Bahlool liked to visit the graveyards. “People here are good friends,”he would say, “They do not backbite.”Once, he sat in a corner of a graveyard and with a long heavy stick and started probing some of the old skulls which lay scattered about. Harun al-Rashid, the king, passed by and saw him. Then he asked, “O Bahlool! What are you doing?”
“Oh, nothing very important,” said Bohlool. “I am just trying to find out whether the skulls belong to king or paupers.They are all the same.”
“And what is the stick for?” Harun asked.
“Well, I’m measuring the earth,” Bohlool replied.
“Measuring the earth? What are your findings?” Harun joked.
“It is equal and the same, O king,” Bohlool retorted.“Three armlengths for me, in spite of my poverty and three armlengths for you, in spite of your pomp and wealth.”
No comments:
Post a Comment