One evening Nasruddin was walking along the road when he saw an alarming sight: men on horseback, coming down the road towards him. "Who can they be? What can they want?" Nasruddin thought to him. "I have heard stories... stories about men just like these! Men who will capture me and sell me into slavery! Men who will take me and force me to fight in their army! Men who will steal the clothes off my back and beat me and leave me for dead!"
As Nasruddin thought these terrible thoughts, imagining himself as good as dead already, he realized what he could do. Not far back along the road he had passed a cemetery. "As good as dead: of course! That's where I will hide!"
Nasruddin then turned and ran as fast he could back towards the cemetery. Frantically, he pulled at the gate, and finally it opened. He then dashed inside and, seeing a freshly dug grave, as yet empty and awaiting its occupant, he jumped down and stretched himself out and lay there trembling with fear, his eyes closed.
Meanwhile, back on the road, the men on horseback, who were nothing more than men of business on their way home, were curious about this strange man who had suddenly turned around and run at the mere sight of them. They followed him, and they were even more intrigued when they saw that he had run inside the cemetery. The men dismounted and went through the cemetery gate as Nasruddin had done.
At first, they could not tell where Nasruddin had gone, but then they saw the fresh mound of earth and the open grave. Sure enough: there he was. As the men peered down into the grave at Nasruddin, one of them said, "Hello there! You, sir, you there in the grave. Why are you lying there in that grave?"
Nasruddin slowly opened one eye, and then the other. He then crossed his arms solemnly across his chest. "Some questions," he said slowly, "are not easy to answer. But in this case, I would say that I am here because of you."
Then he smiled and added, "And you, good sirs, are here because of me."
Notes: I included this story in Witty Tales, version 1 (December 2019): 109. What Are You Doing Here?
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