By Denys Johnson-Davies Goha suddenly felt like having a really good meal that evening, so he went to the market and bought three pounds of the best lamb, which he took back home. "Here," he said to his wife, giving her the three ponds of lamb. "Cook this. It will make a splendid meal." Goha's wife, who was an excellent cook, cut the meat into pieces and prepared various vegetables and, of course, some rice, which she put into the steaming pot. Finally, she put the meat into the stew to cook. Soon the whole house was filled with the delicious smell of lamb stew bubbling away. Now it so happened that the wife of Goha's neighbor had some visitors, and they smelled the delicious stew. "Let's visit her," one said. So they went off next door, where they all bent around the cooking pot. "Let's just try a tiny piece," said Goha's wife, putting a spoon into the steaming stew and eating a piece of meat. Then each of the women put a spoon into the pot, and ate a piece of meat. "Very tasty. Very tasty," they said. Again they sampled the stew. Again and again. And so it went all afternoon. Soon all the meat was gone. With horror Goha's wife looked into the pot. Her husband's supper had disappeared! When Goha arrived home, his wife met him and told him that all she had for his supper were some vegetables and a pot of rice. "What about the three pounds of meat that I bought?" Goha asked. "Dear husband, that wicked cat of ours sneaked into our kitchen and stole it all when my back was turned." Goha went off in search of the cat, carried it into the house, and put the cat on a pair of scales. Its weight was exactly three pound! "If this is the cat, dear wife, then where's the meat? But if this is the meat, then where's the cat?"
