The Foolish Old Man

    Hello everyone!

    It's Thursday again and this time I have brought you a story of an old man and his son. I will be bringing you different type of stories every Thursday and Monday. Sometimes it will be of animals and sometimes it will be of people.

    I hope you enjoy this story.

THE FOOLISH OLD MAN

    Once upon a time, there was a very poor old man who lived with his ten year old son in Africa. He was so poor that he did not have enough to eat. He had a donkey which he used when he wanted to go to the market or some place that was very far. On this day he decided to sell his donkey in order to get some money to buy food for him and his son. He called his son to him and told him of his plan.

    “Look here, son. We do not have anything to eat or any money to buy something to eat,” he said. “Today is market day. We will take our donkey there and sell it.”

    “Alright, Father,” replied the son.

    And so, the old man and his son started out on the journey to the market with their donkey. They were walking beside the donkey with the old man holding the rope tied to the beast’s neck.

    As they were walking down the road they met a man. This man looked at the three of them and stopped and asked, “Where are you all going?”

    “We are going to the market to sell the donkey,” replied the old man.

    “So why doesn’t one of you sit on the donkey?” asked the man.

    The old man thought that was a good idea and told his son to sit on the donkey. So, the son got on it and the three of them went on their way.

    As they were going soon they met an old woman. She stopped as soon as she saw them and went near them.

   “Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself, young man?” she said, “You are riding on the donkey and you are letting your poor old father to walk! Your father should be riding the donkey and you should be walking!”

    The boy, immediately felt ashamed of himself and got down from the donkey and said to his father, “Father, you ride the donkey and I will walk. The old woman is right, I ought to be walking and you should be riding the donkey.”

    So, the old man got on the donkey. Soon, they were on their way

to the market with the old man riding the donkey and the son walking beside them.

    As they were going down the road, they met a young man. When he saw them, he crossed the road and came over to them.

    “Don’t you feel ashamed of yourself?” he asked the father. “You are letting a young boy walk while you are riding the donkey. The boy will get tired.”

    The old man thought for a while and then told his son to get on the donkey behind him.

    Now, as the old man his son were riding on the donkey, they met another man. When he saw them both riding on the donkey, he came to them angrily.

    “What do you think you are doing?” he asked angrily. “You will kill the donkey by the weight of you both! You should carry the little donkey, he is so tired.”

At once the old man felt ashamed of himself.

    “You know what we should do?” asked the old man. “We should find a stick and tie the donkey to it and carry it, see.”

    So the old man and his son began to search for a thick stick until they found one. Then, they tied the legs of the donkey to it and started to carry it down the road. Soon, they came to a bridge over a river. Now, the donkey was tired of being carried upside down and started to kick and bray until the strings holding it got loose and it jumped onto the bridge and ran away as fast as it could!

    The old man shouted and yelled for the donkey to come back in vain!  

    That’s what becomes of people who do not use their own brains and listen to the other people all the time!