The Perfect Soulmate’ 

Mulla Nasrudin was sitting in a tea shop when a friend came excitedly to speak with him.

“I’m about to get married,” his friend said, “and I’m very excited.”

“Congratulations,” Mulla Nasrudin said, pokerfaced.

 “Tell me, Nasrudin, have you ever thought of marriage yourself?” the friend asked Mulla Nasrudin, a chronic bachelor.

Nasrudin replied, “I did think of getting married. In my youth, in fact, I very much wanted to get married.”

“So, what happened?” the friend asked curious.

“I wanted to find for myself the perfect wife,” Nasrudin said, “so I traveled looking for her, first to Damascus. There I met a beautiful woman who was gracious, kind, and deeply spiritual, but she had no worldly knowledge. Then I traveled further and went to Isphahan. There I met a woman who as both spiritual and worldly, beautiful in many ways, but we did not communicate well.”

“Then?” the friend asked.

“I kept on searching for a perfect wife and traveled all over the world meeting many women,” Nasrudin explained.

“And did you find her?” the friend asked eagerly.

“Yes,” Nasrudin said, “after traveling all over finally I went to Cairo and there after much searching I found her. She was spiritually deep, graceful, and beautiful in every respect, at home in the world and at home in the realms beyond it. I knew I had found the perfect wife.”

 “Then why did you not marry her?” the friend asked excitedly.

 “Alas,” said Nasrudin as he shook his head, “She was, unfortunately, waiting for the perfect husband.”