At least some of Nasruddin's fortune was the result of smuggling goods from Persia into Greece. He made that long journey many times, presenting himself at the Greek border on top of a donkey carrying two enormous panniers of straw, one on each side of the donkey.
"Name please," the border guards would say.
"I am Nasruddin the Smuggler!" Nasruddin would boldly reply.
The guards realized that he must just be joking because there was nothing in the panniers but straw. They would stick their hands into the panniers and feel around carefully; sometimes they would even dump the contents of the pannier out onto the ground. Once or twice they even burned the straw. Nothing. Just straw.
Nasruddin, meanwhile, never complained about this treatment. Instead, he would just laugh good-naturedly, saluting the guards with a smile, and then continue on his way.
Some years later, one of the border guards ran into Nasruddin in the bazaar. Nasruddin was dressed in fine garments and attended by a retinue of servants. Clearly, he had become a very wealthy man indeed.
"Excuse me," the guard said to him. "But aren't you Nasruddin the Smuggler?"
"I am!" Nasruddin said proudly. "And you, sir, do I know you?"
"I am one of those border guards who used to search your panniers of straw each time you crossed the border. We never found anything in those panniers, although you have clearly prospered. I would very much like to know just what it was that you were smuggling."
"Donkeys!" Nasruddin replied.
Notes: I included this story in Witty Tales, version 1 (December 2019): 148. Nasruddin the Smuggler.
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