Economy Of Laughter – A Sufi Spiritual Story about Mulla Nasrudin by Osho

Mulla Nasrudin listened very attentively while a stranger told a long story in the coffee-house.

But the man spoke so indistinctly and muffed his punchline so badly that the story was not funny at all, and except for the Mulla no one laughed. But the Mulla laughed heartily.

“Why did you laugh, Nasrudin?” I asked him afterwards when the stranger had left.

“I always do,” replied Nasrudin. “If you don’t laugh, there is always the danger of their telling it over again.”

People have their own reasons. Even laughter is businesslike; even laughter is economic, political. Even laughter is not just laughter. All purity is lost. You cannot even laugh in a pure way, in a simple way, childlike.

And if you cannot laugh in a pure way, you are losing something tremendously valuable. You are losing your virginity, your purity, your innocence.

Osho – A Sudden Clash of Thunder