McGovern. Too Much Noise

Too Much Noise is a children's book by Ann McGovern, with art by Simms Taback, published in 1967. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

An old man lives alone in an old house where there is just too much noise: bed squeaking indoors, wind blowing the leaves outdoors, etc. etc. The old man goes to the village wise man who tells him to get a cow; he does. Now the cow moos, in addition to all the noise (it's told cumulatively). Then a donkey. A sheep. A hen. A dog. A cat. Finally, the old man gets angry; he complains to the wise man, listing all the noises. So the wise man says, Let the cow go, the donkey, etc. etc. So he lets them go (another list). Then, a list of all the noises NOT being made, and the creaking bed and squeaking floor don't sound so bad now. "How quiet my house is now!" the man says.

I first encountered this as a Nasruddin story; it clearly circulates very widely! As often, the author gives no indication of her source, which really (REALLY) bugs me; I suspect her story comes via a Jewish folktale which originated together with the Nasruddin story in the Middle East and then came to Europe, and also to India, or perhaps it originated in India (here it is told about Tenalirama). But that's just me guessing; I'm now going to be on the lookout for a Jewish version of this story. In any case, the story is very nicely told and the illustrations are delightful.

I'm classifying this as a "squeeze in one more" story although this story uses that motif for a very different purpose. Instead of hospitality, this is about squeezing in one more and then letting them all go as a way to better appreciate the available room (and/or quiet) one had to begin with.