Why Nasruddin Rides Backwards

Nasruddin was riding his donkey to the school while his pupils walked behind him. Nasruddin sat backwards, facing the children.
"You look funny riding backwards!" they said.
"If I faced forward, I'd have my back to you," Nasruddin explained, "which wouldn't be nice. If I faced forward and you walked in front, your backs would be towards me, which also wouldn't be nice. If you walked in front facing backwards to see me, you wouldn't see where you're going and you'd probably fall down. So, me riding backwards facing you, just like this," he concluded, "is really the best solution!"

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Inspired by:  The Wit and Wisdom of Nasraddin Hodja by Nejat Muallimoglu, p. 112. The story also appears in The Sufis by Idries Shah, free to read online at the Idries Shah Foundation.
Notes: I added the part about how it would not work for the children to walk backwards in order to explore one other possibility. There are a total of eight possibilities, in fact, but there is not room in 100 words for Nasruddin to explain all eight!

I included this book in Tiny Tales of Nasruddin, where it is story 4.