From Coyote to Loki to Anansi, the trickster is the universe's way of reminding order that it cannot seal all the exits. These figures are not villains — they are the system's immune response, the joke that keeps the story honest. Nasreddin is a beloved trickster precisely because he never uses his cleverness for cruelty; he uses it only to embarrass pretension, which is its own kind of mercy.
Nas