He accepted the pot the cauldron 'bore' — and lost the cauldron when it 'died'

Nasreddin Hodja borrowed a copper cauldron from a neighbour, and when he returned it he placed a small saucepan inside. Asked what it was, he said the cauldron had borne a child. The neighbour, seeing a free pot that cost him nothing, accepted the impossible story and kept the small pan.

Some time later Nasreddin borrowed the cauldron again, and the neighbour lent it willingly, hoping there might be another little pot inside. This time Nasreddin did not return it. When the neighbour came to demand it, Nasreddin told him the cauldron was dead. The neighbour protested that a cauldron cannot live or die.

Nasreddin replied: since he had believed the cauldron could bear a child, he must also believe it could die. And the neighbour never saw his cauldron again. He had accepted the first absurdity because it favoured him; by swallowing the too-good-to-be-true 'birth,' he gave away the only ground on which he could later reject the matching 'death.'