|| A Turkish folktale ||
Nasreddin Hodja 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 was 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 Hodja to explain his strange behavior. “When I arrived here wearing my regular clothes,” explained the Hodja, “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.”
The host felt embarassed and apologized to Hodja.
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