Nasreddin Hodja or Nasruddin Hooja was a 13th-century satirist born in Turkey. He appears in many stories, which are funny, entertaining and thoughtful. While he seems wise in some stories, he is foolish and the target of jokes in others.

There was once a poor man who had no home. All he had was the clothes he wore, a couple of coins in his pocket and a slice of bread.

“I am so hungry, and all I have is one dried bread. If only I could get some hot soup to dip this bread in,” thought the man sadly.

He passed by a restaurant on the road. He went into the restaurant and asked the owner, “Sir, Can you give me some soup? I am hungry.”

The owner replied, “I will not give anything for free. If you want some soup, you better pay for it.”

Unhappily, the poor man turned to leave the restaurant. At the entrance of the restaurant, there was a huge pot with hot soup.

“The soup smells heavenly,” thought the poor man. There was hot vapour coming out of the cauldron.

The man held his bread above the pot. “Let my bread absorb some of the essence coming from the vapour. Maybe it will soak the essence and taste good.”

The owner noticed this and yelled, “What are you doing?”

The poor man replied, “Sir, I was hoping that my bread would absorb some of the flavours of the soup.”

“Since the soup is mine, you have to pay for the flavours as well,” said the owner.

“But, sir, I did not touch your soup,” protested the poor man.

The owner dragged the poor man to judge Hodja.

“What is the problem?” asked Nasreddin Hodja.

After hearing the owner’s complaint, Hodja told the poor man, “Give me your coins.”

The poor man handed over his bag of coins to Hodja. Hodja took the bag and jiggled it.

“Do you hear the sound of the coins?” asked Hodja.

“Yes, sir,” said the owner greedily.

“The sound of the coins is the payment for the smell of soup,” said Hodja.

“But, sir…” said the owner.

“No buts. Not only did you refuse to help a poor man in need, but you also tried to cheat him. As a punishment, I order you to give this man a bowl of soup along with one gold coin,” said Hodja.

The poor man thanked Judge Hodja. The owner of the restaurant learnt a valuable lesson and quit being greedy from then on.