The Merchant and The Donkey : Moral Story for Kids

Once upon a time, there was a person who sold salt in a village. He had a donkey that helped him carry his stuff to the market. They had to cross a river on their way to the market. The person really cared for the donkey, but the donkey was really lazy.

One day, the person had to sell a lot of salt. As usual, they went into the river to cross it. The lazy donkey came up with a trick. It bent its legs a bit while crossing the river. This made the salt bags get wet and dissolve in the water. This way, the load became lighter, and the donkey felt happy. It kept doing this again and again.

The person was clever and realized what the donkey was up to. So, he decided to teach the donkey a lesson. The next day, instead of salt, he loaded the donkey with lots of cotton. When cotton gets wet, it becomes heavy. The donkey didn't know this and tried the same trick again that day.

The cotton got wet and turned heavy. The poor donkey struggled a lot to carry the heavy load.

The lesson of the story is: Trying to trick someone all the time doesn't work out well, or you might face the consequences yourself. It's a bit like "tit for tat," where actions have equal reactions.