The wise merchant and the cheating donkey

The wise merchant and the cheating donkey


There was a wise merchant. He used to carry all his goods to the market on the back of a donkey. He loved his donkey and used to take good care of the donkey. But the donkey was very lazy. On the way from the village to the market there was a dry river. But once in a while the river used to fill up. The donkey and the merchant used to get down in the water and cross it. The merchant was one day taking salt to the market. The donkey knew this and without his knowledge slowly bent its legs while walking in the water. Because of this the bag of salt was drenched and salt got dissolved in water. The load of the donkey came down and the merchant lost lot of money. So the next day, instead of salt the merchant loaded cotton on the back of donkey. Do you know , Maithree when cotton gets wet , it becomes heavy. The donkey did not know this. It played the same trick that day also. Then all the cotton got wet and became very heavy. The donkey thus got punished because of the wise merchant.