Mulla Nasrudin
listened very attentively while a stranger told a long story in the
coffee-house. But the man spoke so
indistinctly and muffed his punchline so badly that the story was not funny at
all, and except for the Mulla no
one laughed. But the Mulla laughed heartily.
"Why did
you laugh, Nasrudin?" I asked him afterwards when the stranger had left.
"I always
do," replied Nasrudin. "If you don't laugh, there is always the
danger of their telling it over again."