The Man, the Boy and the Donkey
- 3 minute read
- Ages 6-10
- Aesop's Fables
A man and his son were taking their donkey to the market town to sell.
They set off early, walking one on each side of the animal, and the road was pleasant and they were in no hurry.
Everyone has an opinion
They passed a group of women at a well.
"Look at that," said one, loudly. "Two of them walking, and a perfectly good donkey with nothing on its back. What is a donkey for?"
The man thought about it and told his son to get up and ride.
A little further on, three old men were sitting outside a house.
"There it is," said one of them. "The young ride and the old walk. That boy should be ashamed, letting his father wear himself out."
The boy climbed down at once and the man got on instead.
Further along the road they passed some women carrying water.
"How can you sit up there," one called, "with that poor child walking in the dust beside you?"
So the man pulled his son up behind him and they rode on together.
The bridge
Near the edge of town a man leaning on a gate looked them over.
"Is that your donkey?" he said.
"It is."
"You would not think so, the way you are loading it. Two of you on one small animal. It would be less cruel to carry it yourselves."
So the man and the boy got down.
They cut a pole from the hedge and found some rope, and after a great deal of struggling they tied the donkey's legs to the pole and lifted it up between them, and carried it upside down along the road with its head swinging.
People came out of their houses to watch. Somebody started laughing. By the time they reached the bridge into town there was a small crowd following them and the noise was considerable.
The donkey, who had been calm all morning, began to panic.
It kicked one leg free on the bridge, and then another, and the pole went sideways, and the donkey went over the rail into the river and was carried away.
The man and his son stood on the bridge and watched it go.
They walked home with no donkey and nothing to sell, having done exactly what everybody told them.
Moral of the story
Try to please everyone and you will please no one, and you may lose what you started with. Listen to advice, but decide for yourself.
Questions and answers
- Why were the man and the boy going to town?
They were taking their donkey to the market to sell it.
- What did the women at the well say?
That it was foolish for both of them to walk while the donkey carried nothing.
- Why did the man and boy end up carrying the donkey?
A man at a gate said two riders was cruel to the animal, so they tied its legs to a pole and carried it.
- What happened at the bridge?
The donkey panicked in front of the crowd, kicked itself free, fell over the rail into the river and was swept away.
- What mistake did the man make throughout the story?
He changed his behaviour every time someone criticised him, instead of deciding for himself what made sense.
Word meanings
- considerable
- Large in amount or size.
- hedge
- A line of bushes forming a boundary.
- panic
- Sudden uncontrollable fear.
- criticised
- Said that something was wrong or bad.
Questions about The Man, the Boy and the Donkey
What is the moral of The Man, the Boy and the Donkey?
The moral is that you cannot please everybody. Trying to satisfy every opinion leaves you with no position of your own and often costs you what you had.
Does this fable mean you should ignore advice?
No. It means you should weigh advice and then decide. The man's error was not listening; it was never once making up his own mind.
Why is this fable useful for children today?
It is a very direct way into talking about peer pressure and about the endless conflicting opinions people encounter online.
What is a good discussion question?
Ask what the man should have done at the very first comment, and what makes a piece of advice worth following.