Nasruddin and the Recipe

Nasruddin's wife had written out the recipe for Nasruddin's favorite liver-and onion dish and then she sent him to the market.
"Buy all the ingredients," she said, "and make sure the liver is fresh."
Walking home, Nasruddin was daydreaming about the fine dinner he would enjoy when out of nowhere a crow swooped down and attacked him. As Nasruddin defended himself, the crow snatched the liver and flew away with it.
"You accursed creature!" Nasruddin shouted as the crow flew away. "But the joke's on you: you forgot the recipe. You don't have any idea how to prepare the dish!"

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Inspired by: Mulla's Donkey and Other Friends by Mehdi Nakosteen, p. 143. The story also appears in The Sufis by Idries Shah, free to read online at the Idries Shah Foundation.
Notes: In Nakosteen's version, Nasruddin runs after the crow offering to give him the recipe, but I like the versions where Nasruddin curses the crow and mocks the bird for not having taken the recipe.

I included this book in Tiny Tales of Nasruddin, where it is story 129.