to give or to recieve

A wealthy merchant fell into a lake and as he could not swim started to drown. a crowd of men were trying to save him each yelling at him "give me your hand merchant give me your hand" but the wealthy merchant continued to thrash around in the water.Nasrudin seeing all the commotion and watching everyone moved quickly to the edge of the water shouting at the merchant "Take my hand" the merchant quickly grabbed his hand, and Nasrudin hauled him out of the water.everyone was amazed and asked nasrudin how is it that you were able to save him when we could not."it was easy", Nasrudin replied, "I know this mercahnt and he was going to drown before he gave anything, but it was easy for him to take mine."