A Man A Boy and A Donkey.

And now for something a little bit different:

This is a story that concerns a man, a boy, and a donkey.

Once upon a time a man and his son were taking their donkey to the local market. It was a lovely warm day and as they were walking along the road a passing traveller saw them and said,

“ You’re a right couple of eejits,  why aren’t you riding the donkey instead of walking”

The man thought about it for a minute and then decided to put the boy up onto the donkey and they carried on their way to the market.

Soon they passed a group of men. One of them shouted,

“Look at that lazy child, he sits on the donkey and lets his poor old father walk”

The man thought about it for a minute and then told his son to get off the donkey and he climbed up onto the donkey himself”

They hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of the women said,

“Shame on that lazy man letting his poor little son walk on a hot day like this”

Well by this stage the man didn’t know what to do. He thought about it for a minute and then told his son to jump up onto the donkeys back and sit in front of him.  Eventually they reached the town and the people passing by began to point at them and shout insults at them. The man stopped and asked why they were shouting at them. One of them said,

“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself overloading that poor old donkey with you and your healthy looking son?”

The man and the boy got off the donkey. They thought about it for a minute and then they decided to cut down a pole. They tied the donkey’s feet to it and raised the pole and the donkey up onto their shoulders. They started to walk off towards the market but everyone they passed started pointing and laughing at the two eejits carrying a donkey.  Soon they came to Market Bridge, when the donkey, getting one of his feet free kicked out and caused the boy to drop his end of the pole.  In the struggle the donkey fell over the bridge and because his feet were tied together, he was drowned.

“Serves you right” said an old man who had followed them.

So remember, if you try to please everyone you’ll end up pleasing no one.