Nasrudin’s turban…
Nasrudin appeared at court wearing a magnificent turban and asking for money for charity.
“You come here asking for money, yet you are wearing an extremely expensive turban on your head. How much did that extraordinary thing cost?” asked the sultan.
“Five hundred gold coins..” replied the wise Sufi.
The minister muttered “That’s impossible. No turban could cost such a fortune”
Nasrudin insisted:
“I did not come here only to beg, I also came to do business. I paid all that money for the turban because I knew that, in all the world, only a sultan would be capable of buying it for six hundred gold coins, so that I could give the surplus to the poor.”
The sultan was flattered and paid what Nasrudin asked. On the way out, the wise man said to the minister:
“You may know the value of a turban, but I know how far a man’s vanity can take him.”