Once Nasreddin Hohja decided to give a gift to improve his friendship with the king. The king had fought many great battles and had lost one leg which was seriously injured and cut off to save his life from the rapid spread of infection.

The Hodja chose a prize hen and roosted it to perfection basking it with butter, spices, and more butter. He placed the roost on a large plate with fresh pilaf and many decorative garnishes. He walked toward the palace with his delicious gift. As he walked, the mouth watering odor of the dish wafted into his nostrils and he became ravenously hungry. He thought that there would be no harm if one of the legs of the hen were missing. After all, the king had one leg missing and he might consider it a complement that the hen is also missing one leg. He stopped and ate one leg. He couldn’t resist his own cooking.

Arriving at the palace, he was shown into the king’s reception room and he bowed before the king and presented his gift. The king was pleased that one of his subjects wanted to please him with a delicious gift, But, on examination of the roosted chicken he saw that one leg was missing. He took this as a personal insult and angrily addressed the Hodja. “Is this a bad joke or a serious insult. How dare you gift me a one legged chicken, you imbecile,” said the king.

The Hodja in a state of panic realized he made a big mistake. He composed his thoughts quickly and said, “Your Majesty, there is something you might not be aware of. All the birds in our land are one legged.”

The king became even angrier, “You insolent fool, do you think I am stupid enough to believe your lies?”

“Dear Sir, please look out your window to the lake. You will see all the birds are standing with only one foot.”

The king looked out the window and saw many birds standing on one foot. He said, “You idiot, I will show you that you are lying.” He called one of his soldiers and ordered him to run after the birds with a large stick and beat them. The soldier did as he was ordered. When the birds saw the soldier running toward them waving a big stick they all began to run on two feet and fly away.”

The king pointed out to the Hodja that his statement was wrong.

The Hodja countered the king by saying, “Your Highness, you have misunderstood what just happened. If your soldier ran after me with such a big and dangerous stick, I would also grow two more legs to run away as fast as possible because of my fright.”