Mulla Nasruddin used to purchase shoes which were too tight for him, one size too small. He was continually complaining and grumbling to everybody, “I will die with these shoes!”
People said, “Why don’t you change them?”
When he came the next time to the shoe store to change them, he again asked for the same size. The shoemaker said, “Are you mad or something? That shoe is always going to give you problems.”
Mulla Nasruddin said, “There is a great philosophy in it. I have so many problems; this shoe keeps me busy, and all other worries become small. I have to manage to walk in these shoes. The only way I know to avoid those other worries is to create a bigger worry. This is so simple. And in the night when I come home, and I take the shoes off… boy, what a relief! This shoe is my only hope to find some relief in life.”
