Khoja Nasr-ud-Dín met one day a number of his student disciples, and was apparently so glad to see them that he begged them to return with him to his home and sup with him. To express the desire that they should sup with him was equivalent to a command from the aged master. The students one and all declared, therefore, their willingness, nay, their anxiety, to do anything that was agreeable to the khoja, for the honour would live long with them, and the memory of the repast would never be forgotten.

They accompanied the khoja to his home, and on the threshold he begged them to enter and be his welcome guests. With true Oriental politeness the khoja humbly assumed for the moment the part of the subordinate in station and in learning, paying homage to each one of his disciples in turn. Having then sought out his wife, he informed her in high glee that he had brought a number of his disciples to sup with him, and bade her proceed immediately to prepare for them a pot of welcome broth.

"Oh, master!" quoth his wife, "with what can I make a pot of broth for you and your guests? Did you, perchance, bring anything home with you? No! Is a miracle, then, about to happen that will give me the mutton wherefrom to provide the broth? You know there is neither meat nor oil nor rice nor anything else in the house, and if you have brought naught with you, and if no miracle is about to take place, then, alas! no broth can be made, master, for you or for your guests."

"Where is the pot wherein we make our broth?" asked the khoja.

It was empty and clean, but the khoja snatched it up, and in all haste brought it into the presence of the students, and addressed them as follows: "Effendiler (gentlemen), pray forgive me for having brought you hither; for there is neither mutton, nor oil, nor rice, nor anything else with which to make broth; but this is the pot in which the broth would have been made, had there been anything to make it" – and he turned the vessel so that his guests might see the inside of it.

His disciples were loud in their protestations that the honour done them was not lessened by the absence of food, but they soon after departed, and for all time remembered this remarkable supper – the only supper, by the way, to which their master, Khoja Nasr-ud-Dín Effendi, had ever invited them.