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MEVLANA

THE GRAMMARIAN AND THE 

BOATMAN 

A grammarian once embarked in a 

boat. Turning to the boatman with a 

self-satisfied air he asked him: 

            ‘Have you ever studied 

grammar?’ 

            ‘No,’ replied the boatman. “I 

am just a simple boatman”

            ‘Then half your life has gone 

to waste,’ the grammarian replied. 

The boatman thereupon felt very depressed, disturbed 

in his heart from burning sorrow, but kept silent from 

answering at that moment. Presently the wind tossed 

the boat into a whirlpool. The boatman shouted to the 

grammarian: ‘Do you know how to swim?’ 

            ‘No’ the grammarian replied, ‘my well-spoken, 

handsome fellow’. 

            ‘In that case, grammarian,’ the boatman 

remarked, ‘the whole of your life has gone to waste, for 

the boat is going to drown in these whirlpools.’

EAT, MY COAT, EAT 

The Hoca was invited to a banquet. Not 

wanting to be pretentious, he wore his 

everyday clothes, only to discover that 

everyone ignored him, including the host. 

So he went back home and put on his 

fanciest coat, and then returned to the 

banquet. Now he was greeted cordially by 

everyone and invited to sit down and eat 

and drink. 

When the soup was served to him he 

dunked the sleeve of his coat into the bowl 

and said, "Eat, my coat, eat!" 

The startled host asked the Hoca to explain 

his strange behavior. 

"When I arrived here wearing my other 

clothes," explained the Hoca, "no one 

offered me anything to eat or drink. But 

when I returned wearing this fine coat, I 

was immediately offered the best of 

everything, so I can only assume that it 

was the coat and not myself who was 

invited to your banquet." 

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