A friend of mine has travelled to Bokara in Uzbekistan and has brought me a book of stories of Mulla Nasserudin who was born there, as he knows I like the wisdom stories of the Mulla. Here are some of them:

- What is more useful to us, the sun or the moon?
- The moon.
- Why?
- Because she gives us light at night which is when we most need it.

Nasserudin was working as a dyer. A costumer brought him a cloth and told him to test him:

- Dye it a colour no one has ever seen before
- What do you mean?
- The colour must be neither black nor white, neither yellow nor green, neither red nor roseate, neither grey nor brown, neither blue nor violet.
- Agreed. I’ll do it.
- When shall I come for it?
- Any day except Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  

The men in the village were boasting who was stronger. Nasserudin said:

- I am old, but I am as strong as when I was young.
- How do you know it?
- In our courtyard there is a large stone. I couldn’t move it when I was young, and now that I’m old I cannot move it either. That’s why I say I am as strong as before.

A neighbour saw Nasserudin busily looking for something on the field and asked him:

- Mulla, are you looking for something ?
- Yes, I’m looking for something.
- What are you looking for?
- See, last year I came by some money and I dug a hole in the field and hid it there, but I don’t remember the exact place and I cannot find it.
- But you surely must have fixed some sign to remind you of the place.
- Yes, I did. There was a cloud whose shadow was just on the spot, and I’m waiting for that cloud.

Nasserudin had to go to a distant city on business and took leave of his wife and children for three months. After three months he realised he would have to remain for one month more to bring all business to a happy end. He wrote a letter to inform his wife, but he could not find anybody with whom to send it to his village. Finally, he himself started for his village, reached it, and knocked at the door of his own house. His wife came out, was glad at seeing him and welcomed him. But he told her:

- No, it’s not that way. Look here, I have not come. The one who has come is the person to whom your husband gave this letter for you. I will come after a month, and then we’ll be able to talk.

So saying he gave his wife the letter, turned round, and left.

Nasserudin and his wife were one day talking at night at the light of a candle. A gust of wind put off the candle and they remained in the dark. His wife told him:

- There, at your left hand, you’ll find the matchbox. Take a match and light the candle.
- But how do you want me to see in the dark which is my left hand?

There is also the story, repeated in all literatures, how Nasserudin is on his way with his son and his donkey. First he rides the donkey and his son walks by the side so that people criticise him for being selfish; then his son rides on the donkey and he walks by the side, and people criticise the young man for riding while the old man walks; finally both ride the donkey together, and people complain they are overloading the donkey.