Grunt Work: A Turkish Folktale

Lions and Legends

This episode of Lions and Legends presents a Turkish folktale about the wise trickster Nasruddin. The story follows a dispute between a hard

Key takeaways

• Nasruddin uses his wits to settle a dispute between a woodcutter and a farmer.
• The farmer claims entitlement to half the wages because he provided 'grunts' and 'cheers'.

Main topics

• Turkish folktales
• Integrity and fairness

Notable quotes

The sound of money is proper payment for the sound of working.

Conclusion

The episode provides a clever moral lesson on distinguishing true cont

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:03) I'm Rebecca Shear, and welcome to Lions and Legends. Speaker 1 (0:09) That is Speaker 5 (0:10) our League of Lions, Speaker 1 (0:11) the nine trusty felines helping me bring you fun, fantastical retellings of myths, legends, folktales, and fables from around the world and the valuable lessons they teach. Today, we're joined by League member Integrity. Speaker 5 (0:25) Hi, everybody. Hi, Rebecca Shear. How are you doing? Speaker 1 (0:30) Uh, fair. Speaker 5 (0:32) Fair is my favorite thing to be. Integrity is all about being fair and honest, reliable, doing the right thing. Speaker 1 (0:43) But what if I told you we're about to meet a character who isn't honest or reliable and doesn't do the right thing? Speaker 5 (0:51) I'd say... Speaker 1 (0:55) I had a feeling that would be the case. Today's story is a folk tale from Turkey, a country that spans two continents, Europe and Asia. The star of our tale is a well-known trickster from Turkish lore and beyond, a wise, witty man named Nasruddin. Does he do the right thing? He doesn't just do the right thing. Thanks to his cleverness, he does the ingeniously bright thing. So let's go roaring, shall we? into the Turkish folktale that we're calling Grunt Work. On a sunny autumn morning, on a winding mountain path, the wise trickster Nostruddin was riding his trusty donkey, Olive. Speaker 3 (1:44) I don't know about you, Olive, but after riding up this mountain all morning, I sure am hungry. Sounds like you might be hungry, too. Okay, sounds like you definitely are hungry, too. Speaker 3 (2:01) In that case, let's find ourselves some food. Ooh, there might be some wild blackberry bushes closer to the top. Let's keep a lookout. Speaker 1 (2:09) Nostradine and Olive continued their ascent. No blackberry bushes caught their eyes, but as they climbed upward, something curious caught their ears. Speaker 3 (2:25) What peculiar sounds. They seem to be coming from the top of the mountain. Olive, we must investigate. Speaker 1 (2:33) Nostrudin squeezed his legs against Olive's sides, signaling for her to pick up the pace. Up on the summit, they found a patch of cleared land, surrounded by freshly cut logs of pine. In the clearing was a big brawny fellow clutching an axe. He clenched his jaw. gripped the axe's handle, and took a swing at a pine tree. Speaker 1 (2:57) Nasruddin couldn't believe his eyes or ears, because when the woodcutter's axe bit into the tree, it wasn't the woodcutter who grunted. In fact, the woodcutter remained silent. Instead, the grunt came from a short man who was lounging on a nearby stump. The next time the woodcutter swung his axe, the same thing happened. Speaker 5 (3:21) Only this Speaker 1 (3:22) time, the pine tree creaked and swayed. The trunk snapped, and the whole thing came crashing to the ground with a rip Speaker 2 (3:32) and a thud. Speaker 1 (3:34) The woodcutter said not a word. But as for the short man... Huzzah! A tickety-dog! He whooped and hollered and clapped his hands with glee. Speaker 4 (3:47) That was a fine tree we chopped down, was it not? Come, let's move on to the next. Speaker 1 (3:54) Nasruddin was mystified. A fine tree we chopped down? As far as Nasruddin could tell, the only one doing the chopping was the woodcutter. The short man didn't do a thing, save for grunt and cheer. In fact, he was so small in stature, Nasruddin doubted he could cut a branch, let alone a whole tree. The woodcutter shot the short man a look. Then, without a