Story 21: Where Manners Are Learned

Iraqi style
English

Story 21: Where Manners Are Learned

They asked Luqman: from whom did you learn good manners? He said: from those with none. Whatever I found distasteful in their behavior, I avoided doing myself. No word is spoken, even in jest, from which a thoughtful mind cannot draw a lesson. Yet read a hundred chapters of wisdom to a fool, and it all sounds to him like idle play.
Explanation: Luqman is a figure of proverbial wisdom in Islamic tradition. The point: a wise person learns even from bad examples, while a fool ignores even the best teaching.

Original · Persian

حکایت شمارهٔ ۲۱

لقمان را گفتند: ادب از که آموختی؟
گفت: از بی ادبان؛ هر چه از ایشان در نظرم ناپسند آمد از فعلِ آن پرهیز کردم.
نگویند از سر بازیچه حرفی کز آن پندی نگیرد صاحبِ هوش
و گر صد بابِ حکمت پیشِ نادان بخوانند، آیدش بازیچه در گوش