Teaching a Cow to Read

One day King Aaron sent one of his guards to call Abunawas.

“Abu, you are supposed to see the king right now,” said the guards to Abunawas.

Abunawas followed the guard to the palace. After sitting there for a while he asked, “What should I do, Your Majesty?”

“I ask for your help, Abu. Everybody knows that you are a very smart man. Therefore, I think you can help me teach my cow to read. If you cannot, I’ll punish you!”

Abunawas had no choice. He accepted the order and took the cow home. As he arrived home, he tied the cow at the palm tree behind his house.

In the next morning he went to the back yard with a rattan stick. He hit the animal again and again. The cow mooed again and again. He kept hitting it while saying, “You, the king, or I?”

He did it every morning. More and more people knew what he did. One day the news reached to the king. King Aaron was angry to hear it. He sent a guard to call Abunawas.

“Abu, why don’t you give me a report on your duty?” asked the king when Abunawas was sitting in front of him.

“I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. I was so busy teaching the cow to read that I forgot to report. Every morning and afternoon I teach it to read,” answered Abunawas.

“Are you successful?” asked the king.

“Not very much, Your Majesty.”

“I heard that you hit the cow every morning and afternoon. Why did you do that?” the king asked.

Abunawas kept silent.

“People said that you didn’t teach the cow to read. You only said three words to it, ‘You, the King, or I’. What do you mean? You have to explain that to me!” said the king furiously.

Abunawas lifted his head and said, “The cow is an animal. No matter how well I teach it, it won’t be able to read. I said, ‘You, the King, or I’ because I want to make the cow understand. Somebody must be wrong. It may be the cow, ‘you’, the King, or I myself,” answered the smart man.

“What do you mean by ‘somebody must be wrong’?” asked the king again.

“If the cow cannot read, one possibility is the cow is wrong. It is too foolish! The second possibility is the king is wrong. He knows that animal cannot read, but he orders me to teach it to read. The third possibility, I am wrong because I cannot teach an animal to read,” answered Abunawas.

The king was silent. He realized that his order was really impossible to do. Abunawas had shown it in his own unique way.

“Why did you hit the cow. You can say the three words without hitting it,” asked the king. Now he spoke more calmly.

“I think every judge will not dare to say that the king is wrong. Therefore, I hit the cow with the hope that it will die soon. When it dies, there will be no more problem for me. I don’t have to teach it to read and you cannot punish me.” The smart men answered.

The king was really speechless at that time. Abunawas was right.

For a long time nobody spoke. Then Abunawas took leave for home.

“You are right, Abu. I take my order back. You can have the cow. You can sell it, keep it, or slaughter it, but don’t hit it,” said the king.