The Innkeeper's Bill (1950s)

[Music] [Music] Progress comes slowly to the land in little changes like those you can see in this old street. telephone wires, electric lamps. The coffee house that once cast its shadow only on donkeys and carts now echoes the motor of a passing car. The public well in the square never runs dry anymore as water bubbles through a pipe from a distant reservoir. [Music] Big joke. I'd like to see you try to drink from that fountain. Why didn't you wait a minute, Hamid? No doubt a lot of water was being used elsewhere on the line. The whole system is no good. What can we expect of something built with American aid? That's unfair, Hamid. That is unfair. We do have running water now where we had dry wells or floods before. As far as I'm concerned, if the Americans don't come through with more funds to improve what they've done so far, we should turn elsewhere for help. Just like that. Just like that. There are other big nations ready to extend credit to us. You know, I know. And if we ever got involved with those foreign powers you refer to, we'd end up with an inkeeper's bill. A what? Offend. I was remembering one of the old stories about Nasaredin Hocha, a wise man who lived in this land 500 years ago. The story is called the inkeeper's bill. It teaches that you should never get in debt to anyone whose main purpose is to take advantage of you. [Music] [Music] A merchant traveling through the country to sell his wares in a distant place stopped at a roadside inn not far from the Hoch's village. [Music] The inkeeper made the merchant welcome and served him for supper one roast fowl, two boiled eggs, and half a loaf of [Music] bread and hay for his donkey. [Music] The next morning, even though the merchant did not know the inkeeper well, he asked if he could settle accounts on his return trip through the district. And the inkeeper agreed. [Music] The trip was long and hard for the merchant. One month passed, then [Music] another, and finally after 3 months, on his way home, the merchant returned to that same inn near the Hoch's village. [Music] The inkeeper served him as [Music] before. Next morning, as he was leaving, the merchant took out his money bag and called for his bill. The inkeeper smiled. I'm afraid it's a big bill, but so long as you're not fussy about money, we can easily come to terms. Allowing a 100 piestas discount, I think you owe me about 200. 200 piestas. 200. The merchant's first shock at the high total turned to anger as the inkeeper explained his bill. Let us suppose that the chicken you ate 3 months ago and didn't pay for had laid an egg every day. That would make 90 eggs. If they had been left to hatch, there would have been as many chickens. And these, of course, would have grown up and laid many eggs. I should have had a large poultry yard by now, all from your fowl and eggs. And you can easily figure the hundreds of piestas I would have made from them. Now you complain even after I allow you a big discount on the cost of all that and even throw in the food you had last night. You ought to be glad I'm only asking 200 pas for my loss. The inkeeper's claim was disputed by the merchant and the case came to court. Before the hearing, the inkeeper had sent a fine fat goose to the kadi, and so his charges against the merchant were listened to with favor. The merchant was found responsible for a great loss by the inkeeper and ordered to bring 200 piestas on the following day. [Music] One of the people in the village who heard the merchants's loud whales of unhappiness was Naseradin Hocha. The Hocha listened carefully and then promised to help. He told the merchant to ask for a 3 days stay of judgment. 3 days later, the merchant with his precious money baged the kadi and the inkeeper. But in spite of his promise to help, the Hocha was nowhere to be seen. Finally, the Kadi sent someone to fetch [Music] Nasarine. And an hour later, the Hocher stood in court. Cardi, I was just coming here when my partner at the farm came in. He was going to sew the field with ordinary wheat, but I stopped him and went to the cereal bins where we keep our boiled wheat. That's just as good, I told him, and gave him sacks of it to sew in all our field. The Kadi's voice was filled with scorn for the whole gentleman, you have heard him. This man actually sews his field with cooked wheat. Is it possible for the court to listen to such nonsense? Just as possible, answered the hoser, as it is to raise a large yard of poultry from a roast fowl and some boiled eggs, for which you have condemned this worthy merchant to pay 200 pias. [Music] [Laughter] And the judgment against the merchant was laughed out of court. When the laughter died away in that courtroom long ago, the merchant was left with a lesson that the hocher had made quite clear. Be careful to whom you get in debt. And that lesson applies just as well today even to international affairs. Sometimes it is very convenient to have credit or funds extended to us. It helps bring progress. But at those times we should be very careful that the country to whom we become indebted is interested in helping us and not mainly in seeing that we become part of its empire or in handing us an inkeeper's bill. [Music]