The Three Donkeys:

Once, three Donkeys lived in a green and fresh pasture near a forest: a white donkey, a black, and a reddish-brown. The donkeys were kind to each other. They used to graze in the meadow together and sleep near each other.

One day, a reddish-brown lion happened to take a stroll out of the forest onto the meadow. It was hungry and looking for prey. On catching sight of the donkeys it became glad, but couldn't attack them, because they were together. So, the lion sat behind a boulder and patiently waited till the donkeys would separate from each other.

However, the donkeys were too clever to separate from each other. They knew that if they were together, no predator could attack them. The lion lay in ambush nearby for two or three days. But the donkeys continued to remain together, and wouldn't separate from each other. The lion became impatient. It thought of a plan. It went towards the cows, greeted them, and said, "How are you, my friends? Are you fine? I have been busy lately, so could not come and visit you. Today I made up my mind to pay you a visit."

The reddish-brown donkey said, "Sir, your coming has really pleased us and brightened our pasture."

Both the white and the black donkeys were troubled by what their friend, the reddish-brown donkeys said, and were grieved at its thoughtlessness. They said to each other, "Why does the reddish-brown donkey believe what the lion says?

Doesn't it know that lions seek other animals only to prey on them?"

As the days passed by, the reddish-brown donkey became more and more attached to the lion. The black and the white donkey advised it against a friendship with the lion, but their efforts were in vain.

One day, the lion said to the reddish-brown donkey, "You know that the color of our bodies is dark and that the color of the body of the white donkey is light. You also know that light color is the opposite of the dark color. It will be very good if I eat white donkey so that there will be no difference among us any longer and we will be able to live together well."

The reddish-brown donkey accepted the lion's argument and started talking to the black donkey to keep it busy so that the lion could eat the white donkey. The white donkey was left alone and was killed, while the black and the reddish-brown donkeys were busy in idle talk.

Two or three days passed since the lion devoured the white donkey. It became hungry again. It called the reddish-brown donkey. The donkey answered: "Yes sir!"

The lion said, "The color of my body and the color of your body are both reddish-brown, and black does not go with our color. It will be very good if I eat black donkey so that in this forest we all will be of the same color." The reddish-brown donkey accepted this argument and moved away from the black donkey.

The lion attacked and devoured the black donkey soon. And as for the reddish-brown donkey, it was so filled with joy that it didn't know what to do. It roamed and grazed and said to itself, "It is only me who has the color of the lion."

A few days passed later, the lion was hungry again. It roared and said, "O the reddish-brown donkey! Where are you?" The reddish-brown donkey, shaking with fear, went forward and said, "Yes sir!"

The lion said: "Today it is your turn. Get yourself ready, I am going to eat you."

The reddish-brown donkey, with great fear and horror, said, "Why sir, I am your friend. I did whatever you asked me to do. Still, why do you want to eat me?"

The lion roared and said, "I have no friends. How is it possible that a lion makes friendship with a donkey?"

No matter how much the reddish-brown donkey begged and entreated, the lion didn't accept its words. Finally, the donkey said, "Mr. Lion, please allow me to cry out three times before you eat me."

The lion said, "Ok. Quickly, quickly!"

The reddish-brown donkey cried out, "I was eaten the very day the white donkey was eaten. I was eaten the very day the black donkey was eaten. I was eaten the very day I made friends with the lion."

The lion devoured the reddish-brown donkey very quickly. Then it said to itself: "I have finished my job in this forest. Now I had better go to other forests."

MORAL OF THE STORY: Any group without unity will easily be destroyed.