Rabia was searching for something in the street.
"What did you lose?" the people asked.
"My needle," she said.
They all looked for the needle.
Nothing.
"Where exactly do you think you dropped it?" they asked.
"I dropped it in my house," she replied.
This made the people angry. "Why are we looking here in the street?"
"It's light here," she replied. "It's dark in the house."
The people were really angry now.
"You do the same," she said, "searching outside for answers to questions whose answers are inside. You are looking where your eyes can see. Instead: look beyond!"
Inspired by: The Little Book of Sufi Parables by Nico Neruda
Notes: This is story 34 in the book. You can read about Rabia of Basra at Wikipedia. This story is told of Nasruddin, but without the explanation that Rabia provides here in this version.
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