Nasreddin Hodja, having a need for a large cooking container, borrowed his neighbor’s copper cauldron, then returned it in a timely manner.

“What is this?” asked his neighbor upon examining the returned cauldron. “There is a small pot inside my cauldron.” 

“Oh,” responded the Hodja. “While it was in my care your cauldron gave birth to a little one. 

Because you are the owner of the mother cauldron, it is only right that you should keep its baby. And in any event, it would not be right to separate the child from its mother at such a young age.” 

The neighbor, thinking that the Hodja had gone quite mad, did not argue. Whatever had caused the crazy man to come up with this explanation, the neighbor had a nice little pot, and it had cost him nothing. 

Sometime later the Hodja asked to borrow the cauldron again.