İstanbul, Turkey, 1998
One Friday Nasrettin Hoca (hodja) stood up in the pulpit in the mosque to preach a sermon.
"O ye believers, do you know what I am going to to talk about today?"
"We have no idea," they answered him.
"Well, if you have no idea at all, then what's the use of my talking to you?"
With that remark he descended from the pulpit and went home.
The next Friday he returned to the mosque and once again stood up in the pulpit and asked the congregation, "O ye true believers, do you know what I am going to talk about today?"
"Yes," they answered.
"Well, if you already know, then what's the use of my telling you?" And he again descended from the pulpit and went home.
Again the following Friday, he entered the mosque, mounted the pulpit, and asked the same question:
"O ye true believers, do you know what I am going to talk to you about today?"
The congregation had prepared their answer in advance: "Some of us do, and some of us don't."
"In that case," Hodja said, "let those who know tell those who don't." And he went home again.
Source: Traditional Anatolian Folk Story (Essential Sufism)
