Beware of a surprise gift from a large family; the present is one but the obligations many. The benefit fits your size but your obligation their size.
Or, to say it otherwise,  when you give and speak to many, your efforts and intentions get diluted as they spread, until there is nothing left. 


​This reminds me of a story:

They say that Mullah Nasreddin, erstwhile jester of the kings, was, once upon a time, a poor but hospitable man, humble teacher in the town of Aksehir.

One afternoon a man from Horto - one of his several native villages, all so proud of him - paid visit and brought a fat duck as a present. The Mullah was exceedingly happy. Without delay he plucked the duck and prepared a delicious soup, which he shared with his guest.

Some days after, another man came to see the Hodja. He brought no present but he explained: "I am the brother of the man who offered you the duck."

"Be welcome" said Nasreddin and invited him to share dinner.

Another day passed and another empty-handed visitor knocked at the door. "May you only know youth, prosperity and good health" he said, "I am the cousin of the brother of the man who brought you the duck." The Hodja asked him in and offered him hospitality.

Now it happens that one week after that, yet another man came to say: "Be blessed Hodja, I am the neighbour of the cousin of the brother of the man who brought you the duck, and I bring you more greetings".

Nasreddin sat him at the guest table and they had a pleasant chat while dinner was prepared. Then, he carried to the table a big pot of boiling water from which he served a large bowl for the visitor.

"What is this, Hodja?" exclaimed the man.
"This, my friend, is the soup of the soup, of the soup, of the soup, of the duck."

Do not deny yourself the little pleasures you can afford now. Let life test your abstinence with the many desires you cannot fulfil. Is it not good sense that having a strong will means obtaining what you want rather than abstaining from what you want?

This reminds me of a story:
​
Hodja’s wife bought some halwa. As it was the holy month of Ramadan, Nasreddin only had some of it, his preferred sweet, after sundown. The evening was too short to swallow it all. Quite a lot remained on the plate.

They went to sleep but the Hodja couldn’t close an eye, half of the night. The remaining halwa, in the kitchen, spoiled his sleep.

“There is halwa left” moaned he after a while.

“Don’t worry, it’s safe in the kitchen, covered with a napkin, the flies won’t touch it” said Khadija.

Soon Nasreddin started again,

“I didn’t finish the halwa!”

“Never mind, you’ll have it tomorrow night”

After another while, Hodja jumped out of the bed and run to the kitchen. He ate the whole lot, to the last crumb and went back to bed with a full belly and comforted at last.

“Why this gluttony” said Khadija “the halwa was all yours, safe in the kitchen”.

“No, woman, it was in my head. The right resting place for halwa is not in the head, but in the stomach where it belongs.”

Agreed, those who have should give to those who don’t. To do this freely is charity and goodness. But who has right to receive what, from whom, is a conversation that overthrew empires. Tread with care!

​This reminds me of a story:

It so happens that one autumn Nasreddin was appointed qadi of Aksehir. With the eagerness of the new broom, the fresh judge was impatient to purge the town of all the wrongs.

Khadija, his wife came from the market and told him,

“This morning I saw a man in rags falling down in a faint by the melon stall. So meagre he was! This is not right. The poor get poorer every day and the rich get richer.

"Why let some people hungry and angry with envy while their neighbours lie sick with fatness? And what good is heaping up coins on top of other coins? You must go and tell everybody to share like real brethren and true believers."

Hodja loved the idea. He was out the whole next day to talk with people, man to man, one by one, house by house, market, bath and caravanserai, not forgetting the mosque. He explained the moral duty of sharing, to everyone, until his throat got sore.

Late evening Nasreddin returned home exhausted but satisfied.

“Woman," he said, "half of the work is done. In only one day I convinced all the poor of the town, without exception, that all riches must be shared."

"Now there only remains, for tomorrow, to do the other half, and to convince the rich.”

“We learn from history that people learn nothing from history” finds one philosopher. “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to live it again” adds another. Try at least to learn this: The change of kings is the joy of fools...



​This reminds me of a story:


The Mullah was sitting as usual, in his favourite spot by the watercourse under the old weeping willow, meditating deeply to the curious difficulty of bathing more than once in the same river.

As he sat, a busy fox slipped into the water.

A whirlpool almost drowned her.

Then the currents tired her.

Exhausted and drenched to the bone the poor beast was lucky enough to grab a hanging weed with her teeth. She kept afloat waiting to gather strength, enough to climb out the riverside. But she was really too weak to rise.

This is when a bunch of leeches found the occasion good to stick unto the fox and feast merrily of her blood.

Witness of such misfortune our good Mullah wished to help.

The wet fox was too heavy and too mad to pull out of the water with only one hand. Hoca was also afraid that he could slip over the muddy edge.

The best he could do was to pull the awful leaches and appease the misery of the poor fox.

Now what do you think?

Through her clenched teeth the fox yelped:

"Stop doing this, fool!"

"Why?" asked Nasreddin, "I'm trying to lessen your ache"

"Why! Why! Don't you see that the leeches on my back are already full? If you take these away, new, hungry ones will come to tax me and suck my blood with fresh appetite, all over again."​