When Nasreddin arrived at a feast in his old coat and was ignored, then returned in his finest robe and was feted by all, he began feeding soup to his sleeve — because it was clearly the coat they had invited. After seven centuries the story still stings, because you have been at that feast, and so have I. His stories travel without passports across cultures and centuries because they are addressed to something in the human animal that has not changed.
Each step builds on the last.