As usual, that night Nasreddin and his friends were chatting at the old coffe shop, The snow was falling down outside. In such a cold night, having sweet black coffee was a very good way to pass the time.
“It’s a very cold night.”, said one of them.
“Ehm, yes I agree. I’m sure no one can stay outside till morning.”, said another.
“I can do it!”, said Nasreddin.
“Ha...ha...ha...you can do it, if you stood beside a warm fireplace.”, said another man.
“No, I’m serious. I will do it without a fireplace.”, said Nasreddin.
“All right you make it. If you sucsess I’ll pay your meals tomorrow, but if you fail, you must give us all good breakfast.”, said Mehmet.
“Deal.”, said Nasreddin.
Nasreddin start at 02.30 a.m. Then he went out to the yard of the coffe shop, while his friends went home and slept on their warm beds.
Sometimes Nasreddin was tempted to go home. But he tried to cheer himself up in order to forget the very cold weather. Besides the cold weather. The sleepiness was also a hard thing to defeat. He saw at the coffee shop and saw a flickering candle inside. He learnt that the coldness and the sleepiness could be forgotten by concentrating his mind on the flickering candle.
Early the next morning his friends came. They were amazed to see that Nasreddin was still standing in the snow. Nasreddin told theirs how he could stayed outside allnight.
But, suddenly Mehmed said,”You lose the bet!”
“Why?”, shouted Nasreddin.
“Yesterday we agreed that you wouldn’t use any candle or fire to warm you. But you used the candle to warm you.”, said Mehmet.
“But the candle was very far from here, don’t you see? How I could it affect me here?”, said Nasreddin.
His friend said that no matter how distant the candle from him. Nasreddin gave up. He invited them to come to his house. When they arrived, Nasreddin asked them to sit in living room. Nasreddin went to kitchen. But after a long time Nasreddin didn’t appear. So their friends went to kitchen. They saw Nasreddin sleeping in the kitchen. “What are you doing?”, asked Mehmet.
“Wait for a few minutes more, friends. Just be patient,” answered Nasreddin sleepily.
The men were very suprised to see a flickering half burnt candle and a sauce pan hung a metre above it.
“Hey, how can you cook some food with a candle a metre beneath it?”, asked one of them.
“Just the same. How could a candle several metres away warm me last night.”
