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' Curiousity '...


For instance, take a loaf and put it under your arm, and deny it
to other men, saying, "I will not give this to anyone at all.

Give
it?

Why, I won't even show it."

Though that loaf has been cast
against the door and dogs even will not eat it because bread is so
plentiful and cheap, yet the moment you begin to refuse it everybody is
after it and set their hearts on it, pleading and
protesting,

"Certainly we want to see that loaf which you refuse and
keep hidden."

Especially if you keep that loaf in your sleeve for a
year, insisting emphatically that you will neither give it away or show
it, their eagerness for the loaf passes all bounds; for "Man is
passionate for what he is denied."



--Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
from discourse #20
Arberry translation

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