Tag Archives: The Donkey and His Shadow

94.The Donkey and His Shadow

A TRAVELLER hired a donkey to carry him to a distant place. The day was intensely hot, and the sun was even hotter. The traveller stopped to rest and sought shelter from the heat under the shadow of the donkey. The owner who accompanied him, found no other shelter there, and the donkey shadow gave protection only for one.

Both the traveller and the owner of the donkey claimed it, and took to arguing violently as to whom of them the right to the shadow had. The owner claimed that he had let out the donkey only, and not his shadow. The traveller asserted that along with hiring the donkey, he had hired his shadow too. The quarrel went on from words to blows, and while the men fought, the donkey galloped off.

In quarelling about the shadow we often lose the substance.