Hodja in dust

Hodja in the Dust

Nasruddin Hodja had a buffalo whose horns were set wide apart. Hodja often felt an urge to sit on the animal's head between the horns, but never dared try it. One day the animal came and sat down very near him. Hodja threw caution to the winds and seizing the horns swung himself into the space between them.

"Now I feel like a king on his throne!" he said exultantly to his wife. The buffalo, startled by the sudden invasion of its privacy, got indignantly to its feet and jerked its head violently forward. Hodja went sailing into the air and fell head foremost into a ditch.

"It doesn't matter," he said to his wife who came running to help him. "It's not the first time a king has lost his throne."