151 Sheikh Chilli’s Tales

Sheikh Chilli’s in-laws invited him to come and meet Fawzia’s grandmother. So, Sheikh’s mother sent him to their house with a number of instructions for behaving well and not doing anything silly. Sheikh carried a pot of ghee as a gift for his in-laws. He reached the area without any difficulty, but as he entered […]

It was Eid. Sheikh’s in-laws invited him and Fawzia to the festival. Everyone was very happy. Sheikh and Fawzia loved each other a lot. Fawzia’s mother had prepared several delicacies. Sheikh ate a hearty meal. He praised each and every food dish, a lot. Fawzia’s uncle, who belonged to Varanasi, had brought special ‘Banarasi Paan’

An elephant strayed into Sheikh Chilli’s village, one night. Next morning, some children saw huge footprints of the elephant while playing. They had never seen anything like that before. All they had seen were hoof-marks of some cattle. It was beyond their imagination that any living being could leave such huge footprints. Some were even

Sheikh was fooled by the thieves who were hiding in the mango tree. Thinking that it was a talking tree, poor Sheikh would buy food and deliver to the tree, every day. If anyone asked him why he was carrying so much food to the forest, Sheikh would say it was for the junior Nawab

One day, for one of his innumerable silly activities, Sheikh Chilli’s mother scolded him quite severely. Sheikh felt sad that everyone called him a fool. He could not help being what he was. Dejected, he left home. He went through a small forest. Two thieves, who had robbed the house of a wealthy man, were

Sheikh was carrying a lot of groceries and a kilo of mutton, in both his hands. While he was more than halfway home, he realised that he had forgotten to buy oil and spices. He kept the groceries and the bag of mutton on the street and started thinking what to do. Suddenly, an eagle

Sheikh Chilli was sent to the market to buy some groceries for the kitchen. Meanwhile, he saw Hakimji walking quickly on the street. He rushed towards Hakimji and asked if he could accompany him. Hakimji agreed. When Hakimji and Sheikh reached the first patient’s house, they saw a child crying loudly, holding his stomach. Hakimji

Sheikh was gifted a shining silver coin and a watch, once. When he returned to his village, all he did was to gaze lovingly at his watch and tell everybody the time. His mind was in a whirl, thinking about how the watch gave the ‘tick-tick’ sound. He thought maybe the watch was having hiccups,

Once, Sheikh Chilli was accompanying the junior Nawab to the market. On his way, Sheikh happened to raise his hand, which held a stick, pointing at something. The horse, mistaking it for a threat, gave Sheikh a hard kick. Sheikh fell unconscious. When Sheikh did not get up for a while, the junior Nawab went

Soon, Sheikh Chilli got an assistant. He was a bigger fool than Sheikh himself. One summer, the mosquito menace hit the village quite badly. The villagers started suffering from malaria. The disease became rampant. The mosquitoes were breeding around the village pond. Swarms of mosquitoes hovered over the pond. As pesticides did not exist in

Sheikh Chilli and his three friends once went to a fair. Now, Sheikh’s friends were also fools like him. A river had to be crossed to reach the fair. This was the first time that all of them were crossing a river, so they told one another to be careful. Shouting loudly, they reached the

Once, Sheikh sent a bottle of jasmine oil to Fawzia, through post. But soon, he got to know that Fawzia had not received the oil, so he rushed to the postmaster, Rashid. Rashid, who had actually kept the bottle of oil for himself, thought of fooling Sheikh. He said, “Sheikh, while the bottle was going

Once, a saint gave Sheikh Chilli’s mother some ashes to be given to Sheikh with a goat’s milk to make him wise. Happy, Sheikh’s mother sent him to a fair in the neighbourhood, to buy a goat. Sheikh set out, wondering how ash could grow brains? At the fair, Sheikh saw a man surrounded by

Once, Sheikh Chilli’s mother took Sheikh to a Hindu saint who had come to their village, hoping that Sheikh would learn something from him and become wise. The saint said to Sheikh, “Have faith in God, son. He is everywhere, in everything. He is in you, in me, in each living being.” Sheikh came back

Once, a very learned scholar visited Sheikh Chilli’s village. This Learned scholar had immense knowledge. On the villagers’ request, he halted there and talked about a lot of things to benefit the people. After the talk, he answered all questions put to him. Then Sheikh asked the scholar, “Tell me what Koran kachar kachar zap