One evening Nasreddin heard a noise in his garden and looked out of the window. A white ox had got into the garden and was eating his vegetables. Nasreddin at once took his{#blank#}1{#/blank#}, ran out and chased the ox, but he was too old to catch it. When he got back to his garden, he found that the ox had ruined(毁坏)most of his precious vegetables.

    The next morning, while he was walking in the street near his house, he saw cart(运货车)with two white oxen which{#blank#}2{#/blank#}the one that had eaten his vegetables very much. He was carrying his stick with him, so he at once began to beat the two oxen with it. As neither of them looked more like the ox that had eaten his vegetables than the other, he beat{#blank#}3{#/blank#}of them equally hard. The owner of the oxen and the cart was drinking coffee in a nearby coffee-house. When he saw what Nasreddin was doing to his animals, he{#blank#}4{#/blank#}out and shouted, "What are you doing? What have those poor animals done to you for you to beat them like that?" "You keep out of this!" Nasreddin shouted back. This is a matter between me and one of these two oxen. He knows very well why I am beating him!"