During the Crusades, Nasrudin was captured and set to
work on the ditch near Aleppo citadel. The work was
backbreaking, and the Mulla bemoaned his lot: but the
exercise benefited him.
   A neutral merchant passing by one day recognized him, 
and ransomed him for thirty silver dirhams. Taking him 
home he treated him kindly and bestowed his daughter 
upon him.
   Now Nasrudin lived a life of fair comfort, but the woman
turned out to be a shrew.
   ‘You are the man, remember,’ she said one day, ‘ that my 
father bought for thirty dirhams and gave to me.’
   ‘Yes,’ said Nasrudin, ‘I am that man. He paid thirty for me,
you got me for nothing — and i have even lost the muscles I
gained digging ditches.’