I Have No Money to Buy a Book

While studying at Harbiye, Mustafa Kemal was full of endless energy, as he was in his entire life.

Mustafa Kemal, who spent his Fridays having fun in Istanbul and often went out, was doing his lessons easily with his superior intelligence.

One day he was preparing for Friday leave again. He was in a sweet conversation with one of his friends. They saw the Chief Grandmaster approaching with the books in his hand. Mustafa Kemal:

"Look," he said, "the chief agent comes with a lot of old books. I'm tired of them now."

The chief agent approached. These books were textbooks sold to students. Mustafa Kemal:

"I don't want to," he said.

“How could you not?” he asked.

-“I don't want a lot of it.”

-"But…"

Mustafa Kemal was angry:

-“For a year in this school, the doorkeeper Mustafa brings me an egg every morning, while asking for an account at the beginning of the month:

“Sir, there are thirty-three this month,” he says, standing in front of me.

"Are there thirty-three days in a month?" If I say it is futile. Because I can't tell him that the moon may finally be 31st. As for you, you hold on, I say I don't want, you don't understand. I can't raise my money to live on. You insist on taking it. Isn't it a textbook? Do I have to buy a book after I have done my lesson?”

And Mustafa Kemal did not take the books from the representative and gave him a lesson at the base. ¹

¹ Niyazi Ahmet Banoğlu, Atatürk with wit and jokes, Volume I, Istanbul 1967, p. 24-25.

Source: Atatürk’ten Gençliğe Unutulmaz Anılar, Ahmet Gürel, Mayıs 2009