In fact only fools give advice, and only fools take advice. Wise people are very reluctant to give you
advice because a wise man certainly knows that the only thing in the world which is given freely is
advice, and that which is never taken by anybody is advice, so why should he bother?
A wise man first prepares you so that you can take the advice. He does not simply give you advice;
you need to be prepared. It may take years to prepare you, to prepare the ground, and only then
can you sow the seeds. It will be a fool who simply goes on throwing seeds on rocks and stones
without even bothering that he is wasting seeds.
All these sages gave him advice but nothing clicked. Finally a man whom he had not asked, who
was not in any way a famous man – on the contrary he was thought to be the village idiot – that man
stopped him on the road one day and said, ”You are unnecessarily wasting your time: none of these
are sages. I know them perfectly, but because I am an idiot nobody believes me. Perhaps you will
also not believe me, but I know a sage.”
”Just seeing you so tortured continuously for peace of mind, I thought it would be better if I showed
you the right person. Otherwise I am an idiot; nobody asks me for advice and I never give any advice
to anybody. But it was too much: seeing you so sad and so miserable, I broke my silence. You go to
this man in the next village.”
The rich man immediately went, with a big bag full of precious diamonds, on his beautiful horse. He
reached there, he saw that man – this man was known to the Sufis as Mulla Nasruddin.
He asked the Mulla, ”Can you help me to attain peace of mind?”
Mulla said, ”Help? I can give it to you.”
The rich man thought, ”This is strange. First that idiot suggested ... and just out of desperation I
thought there is no harm, so I came here. This seems to be even a greater idiot: he is saying, ‘I can
give it to you.’”
The rich man said, ”You can give it to me? I have been to all kinds of sages; they all give advice
– do this, do that, discipline yourself, do charity, help the poor, open hospitals, this and that. They
say all these things, and in fact I have done all those things; nothing helps. In fact more and more
trouble arises. And you say you can give it to me?”
The Mulla said, ”It is so simple. You get down from the horse.” So the rich man got down from the
horse. He was holding his bag, and Mulla asked, ”What are you holding in your bag so closely to
your heart?”
He said, ”These are precious diamonds. If you can give me peace, I will give you this bag.” But
before he could even figure out what was happening, Mulla took the bag and ran away!
The rich man, for a moment, was in shock; he could not even understand what to do. And then he
had to follow him. But it was Mulla’s own town – he knew every street and shortcut, and he was
running. The rich man had never run in his whole life and he was so fat .... He was crying and
huffing and puffing, and tears were rolling down. He said, ”I have been completely cheated! This
man has taken away all my life’s hard work, my earnings; everything he has taken away.”
So a crowd followed, and all were laughing. He said, ”Are you all idiots? Is this town full of idiots? I
have been completely ruined, and rather than catching hold of the thief you are all laughing.”
They said, ”He is not a thief, he is a very sage man.”
The rich man said, ”That idiot from my village got me into this trouble!” But somehow, running,
perspiring, he followed Mulla. Mulla arrived back under the same tree where the horse was still
standing. He sat down under the tree with the bag, and the rich man came crying and weeping.
Mulla said, ”You take this bag.” The rich man took the bag and put it close to his heart. Mulla said,
”How does it feel? Can you feel some peace of mind?”
The rich man said, ”Yes it feels very peaceful. You are a strange man, and you have strange
methods.”
Mulla said, ”No strange methods – simple mathematics. Whatever you have, you start taking it for
granted. You just have to be given an opportunity to lose it; then immediately you will become aware
of what you have lost. You have not gained anything new; it is the same bag that you have been
carrying with no peace of mind. Now the same bag you are holding close to your heart and anybody
can see how peaceful you are looking, a perfect sage! Just go home, and don’t bother people.”
This is the problem for the child, because he comes with innocence and he is ready to buy anything,
and give his innocence. He is ready to buy any rubbish and give his courage. He is ready to buy
just toys – and what else is there in this world except toys? – and lose his clarity. He will understand
only when all these toys are there in his possession and he can’t feel any joy from them, can’t see
any achievement, any fulfillment. Then he becomes aware of what he has lost – and he himself has
lost it.
You are asking me how I managed not to lose my innocence and clarity. I have not done anything;
just simply, from the very beginning .... I was a lonely child because I was brought up by my maternal
grandfather and grandmother; I was not with my father and mother. Those two old people were alone
and they wanted a child who would be the joy of their last days. So my father and mother agreed: I
was their eldest child, the first-born; they sent me.
I don’t remember any relationship with my father’s family in the early years of my childhood. With
these two old men – my grandfather and his old servant, who was really a beautiful man – and my
old grandmother ... these three people. And the gap was so big ... I was absolutely alone. It was not
a company, it could not be a company. They tried their hardest to be as friendly to me as possible
but it was just not possible.
I was left to myself. I could not say things to them. I had nobody else, because in that small village
my family were the richest; and it was such a small village – not more than two hundred people in all
– and so poor that my grandparents would not allow me to mix with the village children. They were
dirty, and of course they were almost beggars. So there was no way to have friends. That caused
a great impact. In my whole life I have never been a friend, I have never known anybody to be a
friend. Yes, acquaintances I had.
In those first, early years I was so lonely that I started enjoying it; and it is really a joy. So it was not
a curse to me, it proved a blessing. I started enjoying it, and I started feeling self-sufficient; I was
not dependent on anybody.
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