Naseeruddin Hodja’s neighbour was in a fix. He had to head to town and didn't know whom to leave his sheep with. Looking around, he found there was only one person who seemed to be available and that was Naseeruddin Hodja. So he requested him to graze his flock of twenty sheep for a day.
“No problem”, said the Hodja. “I am free at present. You can leave the sheep safely with me”. The neighbour was a little nervous because the Hodja was unpredictable. One never knew what he would do next, but as the neighbour had no choice, he gave the Hodja instructions on where and how to graze the sheep. Finally, before he left he warned him, “Do not leave them unattended even for a moment because they may wander off.”
“Don’t worry”, said the Hodja, annoyed. “I have been looking after sheep much before you were born. Go ahead and finish your business in town and I shall do mine here”. Actually it had been a long time since the Hodja had tended sheep. But he wouldn’t reveal that to the neighbour.
Time generally passes very slowly while sheep graze. So as he got drowsy, the Hodja started to count the sheep. There were twenty of them. Hodja watched them chomp away the delicious green grass. Seeing them, he felt hungry too. He looked around to see if anyone could take over his job, but not a soul came along. Finally, unable to bear the hunger pangs, he left the sheep in the meadow and went home to eat.
Before he left, the Hodja instructed the sheep to stay in the meadow and graze to their fill. After eating his meal, the Hodja came back and decided he should do a head count to ensure that all the sheep were there. He turned to one side and counted ten sheep, and then he turned a little and counted ten more. So he thought there were twenty in all. Happy that he had done a good job and content that he had a full stomach, the Hodja went to sleep.
Before the Hodja woke up, his neighbour came back. He was quite angry to see his sheep spread out all over the meadow and the Hodja asleep.
He got angrier when he realised that there were only nineteen sheep. He woke the Hodja up rather rudely. “Hey, look here!” he said loudly, “while you have been sleeping peacefully, one of my sheep has disappeared.”
“Huh, uh?” said the Hodja getting up with a start. “There were twenty of them some time ago. Even if one of them has wandered off, it must be somewhere close by.”
To reassure his neighbour, the Hodja first counted ten and then turned a little and counted another ten. “See! All twenty are here”, he said triumphantly. The neighbour counted his sheep again but he could find only nineteen! That led to a big quarrel. Each time the Hodja counted, there would be twenty sheep, and each time the friend counted, there would be only nineteen .So they decided to call twenty men from the village. They decided that each person would hold one sheep. If each one got a sheep, then it would become obvious that there were twenty sheep indeed. If not, it would be equally obvious that a sheep was missing.
So they did that, and one man stood on the meadow without a sheep. The Hodja got very upset with that man. “If you had grabbed a sheep in the beginning, instead of just standing there and yawning, you too would have got one, and then all twenty would have been there!” he shouted. The Hodja’s neighbour stared at him dumbstruck. Hodja seemed to have the last say in every matter and how!
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