The Salt Seller and His Donkey

The Salt Seller and His Donkey 

Once upon a time there was a salt seller named Joe. Joe lived in a small village. He used to buy salt from a nearby town. He had a donkey called Jack to carry this salt load. There were many streams to be crossed to reach the town.

salt seller and his donkey

One fine day, the Joe was returning after his purchase from town. The Jack was loaded with salt bags. While they were crossing a stream, accidentally the Jack (donkey) slipped and fell into the stream. A lot of salt got dissolved in the water. When the Jack (donkey) got up the load became very light.

From that day onwards, whenever the Joe returned from town after salt purchase, the Jack began to tumble half-way across one stream or the other. The Joe became suspicious as he incurred losses in his business.

Once Joe purchased bundles of cotton from the town and loaded his donkey Jack with bundles of cotton. Jack felt the load to be unusually light. He thought "Today, I am going to tumble and this load is going to become much lighter".

On their way home, as usual, the Jack tumbled and fell into a stream. When Jack tried to getting up, the load pulled the Jack down. The cotton had absorbed water and become much heavier.

Now Joe understands the reason behind his loss. He gave hard beatings to make the Jack get up and walk. From then on, Jack never tumbled while crossing streams.

Similarly sometime we think about some short-cut to avoid the hard work. But the habit of doing so creates even a bigger problem for us.