Avanti made a joke with the majordomo of the king. “You will die in two days,.” He said. And the next day, the majordomo fell off his horse and was killed.
After the king learned of this, he summoned Avanti to the royal palace, saying, “Avanti, my majordomo died due to you. Are you pleading guilty?”
“Yes, your Majesty,” Avanti answered.
“Since you knew when my majordomo would die, do you know the date of your own death?” the king asked.
Avanti shortly understood the meaning of the king and said, “Last night, I saw my comet. I estimate I will die two days earlier than you.”
After hearing that, the king gave up the idea of punishing Avanti at once and secretly blessed Avanti a long life.
Speak a Little Slowly
When Avanti was a disciple, his tutor drummed in that, “My disciples, to really comprehend the essence of every section of the lesson, when you recite it, you should patiently read every sentence one syllable at a time. Moreover, the voice should rise, fall and pause in accordance with the criterion of the lesson.”
Avanti had spoken especially fast and fluently from childhood. When he was a student of the school of philosophy, he had answered every question rapidly and exactly. The mulla, somewhat slow in thinking, often couldn’t catch what he said.
One day, Avanti answered the question of the mulla quickly. Mulla said to him, “Avanti, you must answer the question more slowly and speak clearly!”
Avanti bore what mulla said in mind. One night, he went to the house of the mulla to consult him about several questions. Mulla asked him to get down the oil lamp on the wall. When he took the lamp, he was a little clumsy and set fire to the mulla’s cap that was hanging on the wall.
Avanti said, “Mr.…Mull…a…your… cap…has…caught…fire!” By the time he had finished speaking, the cap of the mulla was a pile of ashes.
You Can Grow Wheat Now
At the height of the busy season, Avanti was put into jail. His wife sent him a message saying “Avanti, when do you come back? It is time to grow wheat. I can’t plough so much farmland alone.”
Avanti wrote back, “My dear wife, you needn’t plough the farmland. I have hidden a pot of gold coins in the fields and it is enough for our food and clothes!”
The letters of the criminals must be looked over by the turnkeys. They were extremely pleased to see this letter.
Several days later, Avanti’s wife sent a letter again. It said, “Avanti, a large group of people came to turn our ten mu (one fi fteenth of one hectare) farmland over two days ago.”
Avanti immediately wrote back to his wife after seeing the letter, “It is good. Now you can grow wheat!”
Blow the Trumpet After
You Go to Bed
Little Avanti also wanted to blow a trumpet when he saw the other children doing it. He ran up to his father and said, “Papa, Papa, the other children are blowing their trumpets; please buy a trumpet for me!”
“No, I won’t,” his father replied. “You make too much noise already. You might make me deaf if you blow a trumpet!”
“Papa, I swear that I will only blow the trumpet after you go to bed if you buy one for me,” little Avanti answered.
The Hole Would Be Left
When Avanti was a pupil, the teacher asked him one day, “Avanti, what is four minus four?” Avanti was tongue-tied. The teacher got angry and said “What have you learned in school since you don’t even know this. You see, if I put four coins in your pocket, but there is a hole in your pocket and all of them leak out, now what is left in your pocket?”
“The hole,” replied Avanti.
Others Can’t Do It
Avanti’s study was bad at school and his writing was illegible.
One day, the teacher asked him, “Avanti, can you do something that others can’t?”
Avanti answered, “Of course I can. For example, I can know what I wrote, but others can’t.”
Be Able to Calculate on One’s Fingers
Avanti sat by a river. Someone asked him, “Avanti, everyone says you are able to calculate on your fingers. In that case, can you tell me if we measure the volume of the water in the river with buckets, how many buckets the water of the river will fi ll?”
“Let me tell you in this way. If the river is as big as the bucket, the river can only fi ll one bucket; and if the bucket is half the size of the river, the river can fill two buckets.” answered Avanti.
Modest Sage
One day, Avanti said to the local people, “Allah has given me instruction. From now on, I will become a sage. If you don’t believe me, please see my invincible might.”
“All right, let us have a look,” one of his listeners said. “Could you please move that tree in front of you?”
Avanti silently recited several sections of scripture and blew a deep breath, but the tree remained still. Avanti promptly walked up to the tree, saying, “I’m the most modest of sages. If the tree doesn’t want to come to me, I will be happy to go up to the tree.”
Black Beards and
White Beards
One day, a rich man went to Avanti’s barber shop. He wanted to embarrass Avanti, saying, “Avanti, please pick out the white hairs of my beard and shave them!”
“All right, please sit down!” Avanti said. Then, he shaved all the beard of the man and handed the hair to him, saying, “My lord, I’m very busy. You can take the pains to pick out the white hairs from the black ones!”
