英语故事

1

Ali, who was working a long way from home, wanted to send a letter

to his wife, but he could neither read nor write, and he had to work

all day, so he could only look for somebody to write his letter late

at night. At last he found the house of a letter-writer whose name was

Nasreddin.

Nasreddin was already in bed. "It is late," he said. "What do you

want?" "I want you to write a letter to my wife," said Ali. Nasreddin

was not pleased. He thought for a few seconds and then said, "Has the

letter got to go far?"

"What does that matter?" answered Ali.

"Well, my writing is so strange that only I can read it, and if I

have to travel a long way to read your letter to your wife, it will

cost you a lot of money."

Ali went away quickly.

2

An old man died and left his son a lot of money. But the son was a

foolish young man, and he quickly spent all the money, so that soon he

had nothing left. Of course, when that happened, all his friends left

him. When he was quite poor and alone, he went to see Nasreddin, who

was a kind, clever old man and often helped people when they had

troubles.

"My money has finished and my friends have gone," said the young

man. "What will happen to me now?"

"Don't worry, young man," answered Nasreddin. "Everything will soon

be all right again. Wait, and you will soon feel much happier."

The young man was very glad. "Am I going to get rich again then?"

he asked Nasreddin.

"No, I didn't mean that," said the old man. "I meant that you

would soon get used to being poor and to having no friends."

1