Nasreddin Hodja planted two onion bulbs; one, he said, was for himself, and the other was for Allah. All the onions from Allah’s stalk were to be given to the poor. Some time passed and the bulbs grew into two stalks. One day the Hodja went into his vegetable garden to pick two onions. He checked the stalk he had planted for himself, it had only empty, dried up bulbs. The one that was intended for Allah, however, was burgeoning with large juicy onions. He picked two onions from Allah’s share. As he was shaking the soil off of the onions, an earth-shattering thunderbolt came down.
“Is all this fuss worth two onions?” the Hodja addressed the sky, “Here, I put them back, stop the racket!”
© 2001 Lale Eskicioglu