Once upon a time there lived a merchant whose trade was selling salt. His greatest friend was the donkey who carried the bags of salt. The merchant looked after the donkey well. On the days he made a really good profit the merchant treated the donkey very well. So, time passed this way for the merchant and his donkey.
On their travels the merchant and donkey had to cross a sizeable waterway or canal daily. One day, the donkey who had to carry two or three heavy bags of salt tripped and fell into the water. After struggling for a while the donkey managed to get up and climb out of the waterway. It also felt that the load on its back was lighter. This was because some of the salt had dissolved in the water.
The merchant was upset at the loss of the salt but decided to go and sell the remaining salt. Meanwhile, the donkey too had figured out that when he falls into water his load gets lighter. The next day too the donkey fell into the water and his load got lighter.
The donkey had figured out that falling into the water was a good way to lighten his burden. However, the merchant was not amused and the next day without going to sell salt the merchant spent the day thinking how to stop the donkey’s crafty trick of falling into the water and making the salt dissolve thereby making his load lighter.
Finally, the merchant had a great idea. The next day instead of filling the bags with salt the merchant filled them with cotton. Unaware of the change the lazy donkey pretended to trip and fell into the water again. And what a shock he got! His load had become so heavy he could not even come out of the water.
The merchant was unsympathetic and insisted that the donkey come out of the water. The donkey climbed out of the water after a great and hard struggle. And the merchant and the donkey went on their way. As the donkey trotted carrying the extremely heavy load it regretted its foolishness and vowed never to do so again.