Juha made a request to his old father to make him a minister to the Caliph in an old country. He would rule this country without distinguishing between right and wrong. After Juha arrived, it entered the Caliph’s head to teach his donkey the alphabetic letters. He requested the wise man and requested him to teach the donkey the alphabetic letters. The wise man rejected this request, then said to him: Juha, why would a donkey learn? I have not heard about something like this in my life nor in the life of our ancestors.
The Caliph became extremely angry and ordered to imprison the wise man. Then the Caliph announced that he would present a huge reward to whoever would undertake to teach the donkey the alphabetic letters that the Caliph himself did not know. Juha heard about this announcement, so he went to the Caliph and offered himself that he was experienced in teaching animals and had a school in old countries where they teach animals. He also teaches them foreign languages. The Caliph rejoiced extremely. The Caliph agreed with Juha to begin teaching the donkey.
Juha made a condition on the Caliph that he would teach the donkey in a special room inside his palace, give him a wage of three years, that the Caliph participate daily for a period of an hour in the study lessons that Juha would present to the donkey, and assist him in solving the exercises. The Caliph agreed immediately to the role of this old teacher and decided to appoint a salary for him during that period, announcing that if he succeeded in teaching him, he would give him a great reward that would guarantee him living with money throughout his life.
He also warned him from failure, saying: If you fail, oh Juha, in teaching the donkey, I will imprison you and strike you with whips as long as I live. Juha accepted the Caliph’s condition and promised that before his colleagues and his advisors who were extremely surprised at this boldness of Juha and considered his doing this madness. When Juha came out of the Caliph’s council, his old father stopped him and said to him: Oh fool, how do you request this matter for yourself, and how do you agree to the Caliph’s condition? Are you mad?
Juha laughed lengthily and said: Oh my brother, in these coming years, I will do my best to teach the donkey. If he does not learn, and that is confirmed, then the Caliph will learn, and he will distinguish between error and correct, and I will have thus served him and served the entire country. But if neither of them learns, then I will request to renew the contract claiming that the donkey has begun to learn but needs a longer period, and in this period either I will become mad or my life ends and I die, or the Caliph learns or goes mad and his life ends and he dies.
One of Juha’s anecdotes…