Take My Hand

One of Nasreddin’s friends loved money very much, and never gave anything to anybody. Soon he became rich.

One day, he was walking near the river with his friends when he slipped and fell in.

His friends ran to help him and one of them knelt on the ground, held out his hand and said, ‘Give me your hand, and I will pull you out!’ The rich man’s head went under the water and then came up again, but he did not give his friend his hand. Again another of his friends tried, but again the same thing happened.

Then Nasreddin said, ‘Take my hand and I will pull you out!’ The rich man took his hand, and Nasreddin pulled him out of the water.

‘You don’t know our friend very well,’ he said to the others. ‘When you say “Give” to him, he does nothing; but when you say “Take”, he takes!’

(L.A. Hill, Elementary Stories for Reproduction, Oxford University Press)