Once, the cruel Sultan of Bukhara passed an order that no one should laugh as he suffered from severe headaches. One day, Mulla Nasruddin saw the soldiers beating a man for laughing. Mulla thought of a plan and shared it with his wife. That night, she informed the soldiers, “There is someone laughing near the burial ground.” As the soldiers went to the cemetery, they heard a spooky laughter coming from a shaking barren tree. “I am the Tree Djinn of the burial ground! I send evil spirits in the Sultan’s brain to make it burst!” the tree roared. “O Tree Djinn, please spare us,” said the chief. “I turned the keeper of the burial ground into an ass and now it’s your turn if you don’t run leaving your clothes for me to eat,” the tree threatened. When the naked soldiers ran through the streets of Bukhara, everyone laughed, forgetting the Sultan’s orders. It was Mulla who had spoken as the Tree Djinn through a hole of the tree.
The Tree Djinn
