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The man who asked God about heaven and hell, Chinese parable.:

When a man asked God about heaven and hell, God first shows him a land where all the people have a delicious meat soup. But they have spoons longer than their arms, so they go hungry and suffer in hell.

Then God shows the man another place where everyone has the same wonderful soup and same long spoons. But here they use the spoons to feed each other. This is heaven.

"Yehá and the Soup Pots," contributed by José Luis Vivas:

Yehá (Moroccan name of Nasruddin) asked his neighbour to lend him a pot to make his soup. Two days later Yeha returned the pot to his neighbour together with a tiny pot exactly like the one he borrowed.
"What should this mean?" asked the neighbour.
"Well, in the two days that it stayed in my house your pot gave birth to this little one, so I am giving you back the mother and its offspring."
The neighbour, knowing Yehá, just accepted the return in silence.
A couple of weeks later, Yehá borrowed the pot from his neighbour again. Several weeks passed, a couple of months, and Yehá had given no signs of returning the pot. So his neighbour asked him, "Do you intend to give back the pot I lent you three months ago?"
"Your pot got very ill and died in my house, God have mercy of its soul!" answered Yehá.
"What do you mean it died? A pot just does not die as animals do!"
"Do you remember that not long ago, last time I borrowed it from you, it gave birth to a little one?"
"Yes", said the neighbour, "so it was."
"Then there is your answer," responded Yehá, "because it is written that everything that begets and gives life must necessarily also die. But God is wiser."

"Nasrudin and Duck Soup," from Shah's "The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin:

A kinsman came to see Nasrudin from the country, and brought a duck. Nasrudin was grateful, had the bird cooked and shared it with his guest. Several days later another visitor arrived. He was a friend, as he said, "of the man who gave you the duck." Nasrudin fed him as well. This happened several times. Nasrudin's home had become like a restaurant for out-of-town visitors. Everyone was a friend at some removes of the original donor of the duck. Finally Nasrudin was exasperated. One day there was a knock at the door and a stranger appeared. "I am the friend of the friend of the friend of the man who brought you the duck from the country," he said. "Come in," said Nasrudin. They seated themselves at the table, and Nasrudin asked his wife to bring the soup. When the guest tasted it, it seemed to be nothing more than warm water. "What sort of soup is this?" he asked the Mulla. "That," said Nasrudin, "is the soup of the soup of the soup of the duck."

The Legend of the Thunder Pipe:

In the stories of the Blackfeet Tribe, two Indians walking at night came across a campfire and saw people dancing. They were invited into a tepee, were seated, and served a berry soup. Then they were given buffalo robes and presented with the medicine bundle, which would ensure a good life for their people. Since that time, shamans of the Blackfeet Tribe have cared for the Thunder Pipe medicine bundle--believed now to be some 400 years old--and opened it each year in a tribal ceremony after the first thunderstorm of springtime. George Kicking Woman is the last in this long line of Shamans, and at 87 he is worried that, with no successor, the tradition will die. The ceremony involves unbundling the pipe (which has a long stem that is intricately beaded and decorated with feathers); singing a song over each of the 20 small figurines tied up in it; offering the berries from a prepared berry soup to the Creator; and having young tribesmen dancing with the contents of the bundle, asking the Creator to bring good health and good fortune.