29. Sadi being about to purchase a house, a Jew came up and said, “I am an old neighbour, and know the house to be good and sufficient. Buy it by all means.” Sadi answered, The house must be bad if thou art a neighbour....
31. An old man being asked, why he did not take a wife, answered, I do not like old women: and a young woman, I judge from that, can never like me.
32. A courtier sent a foolish son to be educated by a sage. He made no progress, and some time after the sage brought him back, saying, This boy will never be wiser; and he has even made me foolish in teaching him.
33. A king sent his son to an instructor, desiring him to educate the boy, as he did his own sons. The preceptor laboured in vain to teach the young prince, though his own sons made great progress. The king sending for him and reproaching him for this; he answered, O king, the education was the same, but the capacity differed. We find gold in the soil! yet gold is not found in every soil.
34. A man having sore eyes went to a mule-doctor, who gave him an ointment that struck him blind. The man brought his doctor before the cadi, who acquitted him; saying to the patient, If you had not been an ass, you would not have applied to a mule-doctor.
35. Sadi saw two boys, one the son of a rich man, the other of a poor, sitting in a cemetery. The former said “My father’s tomb is marble, marked with letters of gold: but what is your father’s? two turfs and a handful of dust spread over them.” The poor boy answered, Be silent. Before your father shall have moved his marble! mine shall be already in paradise.
36. Muhammed, the learned priest of Gasala, being asked, how he had acquired so much science? answered, I never was ashamed to ask and learn what I did not know....
Jalal uddin Rumi was another Persian who wrote a series of stories conveying moral maxims.
THE SICK SCHOOLMASTER
The boys of a certain school were tired of their teacher, as he was very strict in the exaction of diligence; so they consulted together for the best means of getting rid of him for a time. Said they, “Why does he not fall ill, so that he may be obliged to be away from school, and we be released from confinement and work? Alas! he stands as firm as a rock.” One of them, who was wiser than the rest, suggested this plan: “I shall go to the teacher, and ask him why he looks so pale, saying, ‘May it turn out well! But your face has not its usual color. Is it due to the weather, or to fever?’ This will create some alarm in his mind. Then you, brother,” he continued, turning to another boy, “must assist me by using similar words. When you come into the schoolroom you must say to the teacher, ‘I hope, sir, you are well.’ This will tend to increase his apprehension, even though in a slight degree; and you know that even slight doubts are often enough to drive a man mad. Then a third, a fourth, and a fifth boy must one after another express his sympathy in similar words, till at last, when thirty boys successively have given expression to words of like nature, the teacher’s apprehension will be confirmed.”