A man climbed up a tall tree then discovered the trip down wasn’t as easy as the trip up. In fact, try as he might, he just couldn’t figure a way to get down safely.
He asked a few passers-by for help, but no one knew what to do, so he was stuck.
Then Nasrudin walked by and devised a plan. He threw a rope up to the man and said, “Tie this around your waist.” People nearby wondered what Nasrudin was doing, and asked him what his plan was. The Mulla calmly replied, “Just trust me – this works.”
When the man had the rope tied around his waist, Nasrudin pulled the rope. As a result, the man fell from the tree and hurt himself. Bystanders were horrified to see this, and remarked, “What kind of a plan was that?”
“Well,” Nasrudin replied, “I once saved someone’s life doing the exact same thing.”
“Are you sure,” one man asked.
“Yes,” Nasrudin replied. “The only thing I’m not sure about is whether I saved him from a well or from a tree.”