Donkey Bargain

Nasrudin had a donkey that he hated. One day he decided to sell the donkey and buy another one. So he went off to the market place with it and asked the auctioneer to sell the donkey.

That evening Nasrudin burst into the house with a big smile on his face. His wife, who had been cooking, was so surprised at his noisy entrance that she almost dropped the spoon into the fire. “What’s the matter?” She asked.
“You will never guess what I did today!”
“Oh no! I don’t even want to think about the possibilities,” groaned the wife.
“Listen!” said Nasrudin. “I took my donkey and asked the auctioneer to sell it this afternoon. Then I stayed on to collect my money. And when my donkey went up to for sale, the man said, “Take a look at this donkey, my friends. Have you ever seen such a healthy animal?”
“Of course it was healthy,” said the wife. “It ate and ate and never worked!”
“Then people started to bid money for my donkey. Someone even wanted to pay three gold pieces at the very beginning!”
“I hope someone paid more than that!”
“Why wouldn’t they? After all, as the auctioneer said, my donkey had nice long ears, strong legs, good teeth and was also very young.”
“So, how much did you get for it?” asked the wife excitedly. By now she thought someone must have paid at least ten gold pieces for that useless donkey.

“Oh, you should have been there,” said Nasrudin. “People were bidding against each other to buy that donkey. And the auctioneer kept praising it until. . . .”
“Until,” he continued with a big smile, “I bid the highest amount and bought the excellent donkey for thirty gold pieces!”

Truly, a fool and his money are soon parted.