Silly Chicken

Idries Shah • Jeff Jackson
Written by
Idries Shah
The sixth title in this award-winning series of children’s

stories by Idries Shah, The Silly Chicken is the delightful
tale of a chicken who learns to speak as we do. What
follows will intrigue young children and, at the same
time, alert them in a very amusing way to the dangers
of being too gullible.
This tale is one of the many hundreds of Sufi develop-
mental stories collected by Idries Shah from oral and
written sources in Central Asia and the Middle East. For
more than a thousand years this story has entertained
young people and helped to foster in them the ability to
examine their assumptions and to think for themselves.
This is illustrator/animator Jeff Jackson’s first children's
book. It expresses his unique ability to create a lively
and amusing world, rich in color, and one in which
anything can happen. His illustrations are full of visual
delights and details faithful to the part of the world
from which this story comes.
Illustrated by
Jeff Jackson
Text copyright  2000 by The Estate of Idries Shah
Illustrations copyright  2000 by Jeff Jackson
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as
may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from
the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to
Hoopoe Books, PO Box 381069, Cambridge MA 02238-1069 Written by
First Edition 2000
Second Impression 2005
Idries Shah
Illustrated by
Jeff Jackson
Published by Hoopoe Books,
a division of The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge
Visit www.hoopoekids.com for a

complete list of Hoopoe titles, CDs, DVDs
and parent/teacher guides.
ISBN 1-883536-19-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shah, Idries, 1924-

The silly chicken / written by Idries Shah ; illustrated by Jeff Jackson.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: A Sufi teaching tale of a chicken that has learned to speak as people do and
spreads an alarming warning, which causes the townspeople panic without first
considering the messenger.
ISBN 1-883536-19-7
[1. Folklore.] I. Jackson, Jeff, 1971- ill. II. Title.
PZ8.S336 Si 2000
398.22--dc21
[E]
99-051506
Once upon a time in a country far away,
there was a town, and in the town there was a
chicken, and he was a very silly chicken indeed.
He went about saying “Tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-
tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-tuck.” And nobody knew
what he meant.
Of course, he didn’t mean anything at all,

but nobody knew that. They thought that
“Tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-
tuck” must mean something.
Now, a very clever man came to the town, and he Then he decided to teach the chicken to speak our
decided to see if he could find out what the chicken meant kind of language. He tried, and he tried, and he tried.
by “Tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-tuck.” It took him quite a long time, but in the end, the chicken
could speak perfectly well, just like you and me.
First he tried to learn the chicken’s language. He
tried, and he tried, and he tried. But all he learned to say
was “Tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-tuck, tuck-tuck-tuck.”
Unfortunately, although he sounded just like the chicken,
he had no idea what he was saying.
The chicken called out again, “The earth
After learning to speak as we do, the chicken went
is going to swallow us up!” This time the
into the main street of the town and called out, “The earth
people heard him, and they began to cry out,
is going to swallow us up!” At first the people didn’t hear
what he was saying because they didn’t expect a chicken “Good heavens!”
to be talking human language.
“Good gracious!”
“Dear me!”
“The earth is going

to swallow us up!”
“Yes, indeed! The

chicken says so!”
Thoroughly alarmed, all the people
packed up their most precious things and
began to run to get away from the earth.
They ran from one town ...
to another.
They ran through the fields ... and into the woods and across the meadows.
They ran up the mountains ...
and down the mountains.

They ran down the world and up the world ... and around the world.
They ran in every possible direction. But
they still couldn’t get away from the earth.
Finally they came back to their town. And there was the chicken, And they became furious, and they glared sternly at the
just where they had left him before they started running. chicken and spoke in angry voices.
“How do you know the earth is going to swallow us up?” they “How could you tell us such a thing?”
asked the chicken.
“How dare you!”
“I don’t know,” said the chicken.
At first the people were astonished, and they said

again and again, “You don’t know? You don’t know?
You don’t know?”
“You made us run from one town to another!”
“You made us run up the mountains ...
“You made us run through the fields and into the

woods and across the meadows!” and down the mountains!”
“You made us run
down the world and “You made us run in every
up the world and possible direction!”
around the world!”
“And all the while we thought
you knew the earth was going to
swallow us up!”
The chicken smoothed his feathers and cackled and
said, “Well, that just shows how silly you are! Only silly
people would listen to a chicken in the first place. You
think a chicken knows something just because he can talk?”
At first the people just stared at the chicken, and then

they began to laugh. They laughed, and they laughed, and
they laughed because they realized how silly they had been,
and they found that very funny indeed.
After that, whenever they wanted
to laugh they would go to the
chicken and say, “Tell us
something to make us laugh.”
And the chicken would say,

“Cups and saucers are made out
of knives and forks!”
The people would laugh and say,

“Who are you? Who are you?”
And the chicken would reply, “I am an egg.”
The people would laugh at this, too, because

they knew he wasn’t an egg, and they would say,
“If you’re an egg, why aren’t you yellow?”
“I am not yellow,” the
chicken would reply, “because
I painted myself blue.”
The people would laugh

at this, too, because they could
see he was not blue at all, and
they would say, “What did
you paint yourself with?”
And the chicken would

reply, “With red ink.”
Other Books by Idries Shah
For Young Readers

The Clever Boy and the Terrible, Dangerous Animal
The Boy Without a Name
The Farmer’s Wife
Neem the Half-Boy
The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water
The Magic Horse
World Tales
Literature
The Hundred Tales of Wisdom
A Perfumed Scorpion
Caravan of Dreams
Wisdom of the Idiots
The Magic Monastery
The Dermis Probe
Novel
Kara Kush
Informal Beliefs
Oriental Magic
The Secret Lore of Magic
Humor
The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin
The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin
The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
Special Illumination
Travel
Destination Mecca
Human Thought
Learning How to Learn
The Elephant in the Dark
Thinkers of the East
Reflections
And now people everywhere laugh at chickens A Veiled Gazelle
Seeker After Truth
and never take any notice of what they say — even
Sufi Studies
if they can talk — because, of course, everybody The Sufis
The Way of the Sufi
knows that chickens are silly. Tales of the Dervishes
The Book of the Book
Neglected Aspects of Sufi Study
And that chicken still goes on and on in that The Commanding Self
Knowing How to Know
town, in that far-away country, telling people things
to make them laugh. Studies of the English
Darkest England
The Natives are Restless

Silly Chicken

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Idries Shah • Jeff Jackson

The sixth title in this award-winning series of children’s

Illustrations copyright  2000 by Jeff Jackson

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

Visit www.hoopoekids.com for a

Shah, Idries, 1924-

Of course, he didn’t mean anything at all,

“The earth is going

“Yes, indeed! The

and down the mountains.

At first the people were astonished, and they said

“You made us run through the fields and into the

At first the people just stared at the chicken, and then

And the chicken would say,

The people would laugh and say,

And the chicken would reply, “I am an egg.”

The people would laugh at this, too, because

The people would laugh

And the chicken would

For Young Readers

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