In Persian culture, the well-known idiom 'Dusti-ye Khaleh Kherseh' (the friendship of Aunt Bear) refers to well-intentioned but ultimately destructive help from a foolish or ignorant friend. This widespread proverb originates directly from the climax of Rumi's tale in Book Two of the Masnavi. Attempting to protect its sleeping human companion from a persistent fly, the bear throws a heavy millstone at the insect, crushing the man's face in the process. Rumi explicitly concludes that 'the love of a fool is the love of a bear' (مهر ابله مهر خرس آمد یقین), illustrating that affection without intellect and discernment is as dangerous as outright enmity.

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## Original content
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شخص خفت و خرس می‌راندش مگس 
وز ستیز آمد مگس زو باز پس
چند بارش راند از روی جوان 
آن مگس زو باز می‌آمد دوان
خشمگین شد با مگس خرس و برفت 
بر گرفت از کوه سنگی سخت زفت
سنگ آورد و مگس را دید باز 
بر رخ خفته گرفته جای و ساز
بر گرفت آن آسیا سنگ و بزد 
بر مگس تا آن مگس وا پس خزد
سنگ روی خفته را خشخاش کرد 
این مثل بر جمله عالم فاش کرد
مهر ابله مهر خرس آمد یقین 
کین او مهرست و مهر اوست کین
عهد او سستست و ویران و ضعیف 
گفت او زفت و وفای او نحیف
گر خورد سوگند هم باور مکن 
بشکند سوگند مرد کژسخن
چونک بی‌سوگند گفتش بد دروغ 
تو میفت از مکر و سوگندش بدوغ
نفس او میرست و عقل او اسیر 
صد هزاران مصحفش خود خورده گیر
چونک بی سوگند پیمان بشکند 
گر خورد سوگند هم آن بشکند
زانک نفس آشفته‌تر گردد از آن 
که کنی بندش به سوگند گران
چون اسیری بند بر حاکم نهد 
حاکم آن را بر درد بیرون جهد
بر سرش کوبد ز خشم آن بند را 
می‌زند بر روی او سوگند را
تو ز اوفوا بالعقودش دست شو 
احفظوا ایمانکم با او مگو
وانک حق را ساخت در پیمان سند 
تن کند چون تار و گرد او تند

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## English translation
A person slept, and a bear was driving flies away from him; out of obstinacy the fly kept coming back. Several times the bear drove it from the young man’s face, but the fly came running back again. The bear grew angry at the fly and went off; it lifted a huge hard stone from the mountain. It brought the stone and saw the fly again, settled in place on the sleeper’s face. It lifted that millstone-like stone and struck at the fly so that the fly might crawl back. The stone crushed the sleeper’s face into poppy-seed bits; this example made the matter plain to the whole world. The love of a fool is certainly bear-love: his enmity is love, and his love is enmity. His covenant is slack, ruined, and weak; his speech is coarse, and his fidelity is meagre. If he swears an oath too, do not believe him; the crooked-speaking man breaks his oath. Since his word was false even without an oath, do not fall for his deceit and his oath. His nafs is ruler and his reason captive; count him as someone who could already have sworn by a hundred thousand Qur’ans. Since he breaks a pact without an oath, if he swears an oath he will break that too. For the nafs becomes more agitated when you bind it with a heavy oath. It is like a captive putting a fetter on the ruler: the ruler tears it off and leaps out. In anger he beats that fetter on the captive’s head; he throws the oath back in his face. Wash your hands of applying ‘Fulfill the contracts’ to him; do not say to him, ‘Guard your oaths.’ But the one who has made God the guarantor in the covenant makes his body like thread and winds around Him.

دفتر دوم - بخش ۴۷ - تتمهٔ اعتماد آن مغرور بر تملق خرس / Book Two - Section 47 - The Continuation of That Deluded One's Trust in the Bear's Flattery

In the tragic conclusion to the tale of the bear and the foolish man in Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the bear's misguided devotion directly leads to the man's demise. While the man sleeps, a stubborn fly repeatedly lands on his face. Enraged by the fly and desiring to protect his companion, the bear lifts a massive stone and strikes the fly, inadvertently crushing the sleeping man's face into pieces. Rumi uses this vivid climax to emphasize that the love of a fool is ultimately indistinguishable from enmity. He warns that a fool's intellect is held captive by their unrefined carnal soul (nafs); therefore, their loyalties, promises, and oaths are entirely unreliable. The allegory serves as a stark reminder that associating with the ignorant, regardless of their seemingly good intentions, inevitably brings about destruction.

The Destructive Climax of the Bear's Friendship in the Masnavi

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In Book 2 of Jalaluddin Rumi's Masnavi, the tale of a man who befriends a bear serves as a profound warning against the companionship of fools. After a man saves a bear from a dragon, the bear becomes fiercely devoted to him, guarding him while he sleeps. A wise passerby warns the man to drive the beast away, cautioning that 'the friendship of a fool is worse than enmity' and that such affection is ultimately deceptive and dangerous. The man, blinded by his own vanity and suspicion, dismisses the warning as mere envy and refuses to abandon the bear for a human companion. Rumi uses this allegory to illustrate how the unrefined carnal soul, much like the foolish bear, may offer comfort or temporary protection, but its inherent ignorance will eventually lead to destruction. He emphasizes the critical importance of seeking the company of the wise and trusting the spiritual insight (the 'light of God') of true friends over the seductive but perilous devotion of the foolish.

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