The Donkey and the Load of Salt
- 2 minute read
- Ages 5-9
- Aesop's Fables
A merchant kept a donkey, and twice a week they went to the coast to buy salt and carried it back over the river to the market town.
The salt was heavy. The road was long. The donkey did not enjoy any part of it.
The slip
One morning, crossing the river at the shallow ford, the donkey lost his footing on a wet stone and went down into the water on his side.
He got up, shook himself, and started walking again.
And after a few steps he noticed something wonderful. The load on his back had gone light. Almost nothing.
The salt had dissolved in the water and washed away downstream.
The donkey walked the rest of the way to market feeling better than he had felt in years, and he thought about it all the way home.
The plan
The next trip, he was ready.
They loaded the salt at the coast and set off, and when they reached the middle of the river the donkey lay down in the water deliberately and stayed there for a good long while before getting up.
It worked exactly as before. He came out of the river carrying almost nothing.
The merchant said nothing at all. He simply watched.
The sponges
On the next trip they did not go to the salt sellers.
The merchant took the donkey to a different part of the market and loaded him with sponges instead: great light bales of them, piled up high. The donkey could hardly feel the weight and thought his luck had turned completely.
They came to the river.
The donkey walked to the middle, looked around, and lay down in the water.
He stayed down a good long time, the way he had learned to.
When he tried to get up he could not. The sponges had drunk the river. The load on his back now weighed four times what it had on the bank, and it was still getting heavier, and the merchant sat down on a rock to wait.
Moral of the story
A trick that worked once will not work everywhere. Understand why something worked before you try it again.
Questions and answers
- What was the donkey's job?
He carried loads of salt from the coast back to the market town twice a week.
- How did the donkey's load become lighter the first time?
He slipped and fell in the river, and the salt dissolved in the water and washed away.
- What did the donkey do on the next trip?
He lay down in the river on purpose so the salt would dissolve again.
- How did the merchant respond?
He said nothing at the time, but on the following trip he loaded the donkey with sponges instead of salt.
- Why did the trick fail with sponges?
Sponges soak up water instead of dissolving, so the load became several times heavier and the donkey could not get up.
Word meanings
- ford
- A shallow place in a river where you can cross.
- dissolved
- Mixed into a liquid until it disappeared.
- bales
- Large bundles of goods tied together.
- deliberately
- On purpose, not by accident.
Questions about The Donkey and the Load of Salt
What is the moral of The Donkey and the Load of Salt?
The moral is that repeating a trick without understanding why it worked will eventually backfire. The donkey copied the action but never understood the reason.
Why did the merchant not punish the donkey directly?
He let the consequence do the teaching. The fable is more effective because the donkey works out the lesson himself.
What is a good science link for this fable?
It is a natural way into talking about dissolving and absorbing. Salt dissolves in water; sponges absorb it. Same river, opposite result.
Is the donkey clever or foolish?
He is genuinely clever to notice the pattern, and foolish to assume it would always hold. That combination is what makes the fable memorable.