I'm half mad

Wow... I like the humorous stories of Nasreddin very much...and here it is one of the stories that I had read, the title is I'm Half Mad.

It was a fruit season. Almost all people at that country planted fruit trees. So did Nasreddin. He had a lot of grape trees. He picked two basketful of grapes and wanted to sell the grapes to the market. He put the two baskets on his donkey and brought them to the market.

It was a very hot midday. The market was still far before him. He stopped and had a drink in a food stall nearby. Then several men with several donkeys bringing grapes came and took a rest at the same food stall. After having lunch, they fell asleep. Nasreddin did not fell asleep. Seeing the men were sleeping, he went out. He began taking out some grapes from the men's basket and putting them into his. 

Suddenly one of them woke up and saw him. He shouted, "what are you doing!"

"Oh, I'm half mad. Sometimes I do strange things and do not know what I am doing,"said he.

"Really? Then why don't you sometimes take grapes from your baskets and put them into our baskets?" asked the man angrily. Meanwhile the other men woke up. They approached Nasreddin, Nasreddin was afraid.

"You don't understand me. I said I am half mad, not totally mad. So, I still differentiate which ones are my baskets and which ones others'. But I cannot differentiate where are others' baskets if mine are there also."


(ref. Nasreddin, The clever man retold by Sugeng hariyanto)