Brave donkey Fairy Tale

The donkey was tired of carrying loads and felt completely exhausted. One day, he approached the camel who was accompanying him and said:

– Hey, camel, I’m utterly fed up with carrying loads; I have no strength left! Let’s run away from our master and live freely, doing whatever we want, – he said. The camel, after pondering for a moment, replied:

– It is true that our master is harsh, he works us hard, and we are poorly cared for. I would be happy to escape, but how should we do it? The donkey had his answer ready. He said, “I’ve thought it through, so don’t worry. Tomorrow our master will take salt to the city. At first, we will quietly follow his orders, but once we reach the mountains, we will pretend to be exhausted and fall down, refusing to get up. Our master will curse and beat us, but we won’t budge. Eventually, he will get tired and go home to fetch another vehicle. We will then be free to roam as we please, as long as your legs can endure it, you can run wherever you want.”

The camel felt encouraged:

– That’s brilliant! Let’s do just that, – it said. They waited for the next morning. Their master woke up early, loaded the donkey and the camel with sacks of salt, and set off for the city.

Their journey continued normally up to the halfway point. The camel led the way, followed by the donkey, with their master bringing up the rear, stick in hand. As soon as they reached the mountains, the camel and the donkey fell down, pretending to be exhausted and refusing to get up.

The master shouted at them:

– You good-for-nothing lazy creatures, lying around and eating all day! Get up before I beat you! – he scolded angrily.

Ignoring his words, they continued to lie down as if they hadn’t heard him. Frustrated, their master began to beat them. He struck the camel thirty-nine times, but it didn’t budge; on the fortieth strike, the camel let out a loud cry and jumped up.

– So it is! You should have done this long ago! – said the master, turning to beat the donkey. He struck the donkey forty times, but it lay still, without making a sound. He struck it fifty times, and the donkey remained unresponsive; sixty times, and the donkey still showed no sign of movement, lying there as if dead.

The master realized the situation had gone too far. The donkey seemed close to death. This was an unfortunate turn of events, but what could he do?! He loaded the donkey's burden onto the camel and set off. The camel, now carrying both its own load and the donkey’s, struggled to keep up and grumbled, “Cursed donkey, because I listened to you, I’ve received so many blows and now have to carry double the load!” The donkey lay there until its master led the camel over the hill, and when they were out of sight, it jumped up and ran away. The donkey ran for three days, crossing three mountains and three valleys, and finally arrived at a wide plain by the Tentek River. The donkey liked the meadow and decided to settle there. It turned out that this meadow belonged to a fierce tiger for a long time. One day, the tiger went out to inspect its territory. It left in the morning and encountered the donkey around noon. The donkey was happily grazing in the meadow, swishing its tail. “What an animal I’ve never seen before!” thought the tiger. When the donkey saw the tiger, it panicked. “My time has come!” it thought. Rather than die without a fight, it decided to show this fearsome predator its bravery and thought it better to die fighting.

It raised its tail high and perked its ears, then let out a loud bray.

The tiger, terrified, stumbled back, its eyes wide in fear, and ran away without looking back. On the way, it met a wolf, who asked, “What are you so afraid of, my lord?”

– I’m running from a beast, a creature so terrifying, I doubt there’s another like it in the world. It has wings instead of ears, its head is like a lion’s, and its roar shakes the ground and splits the sky! – the tiger replied.

– Calm down, calm down, – said the wolf. “Could it be that what you saw was a donkey? It looks exactly like that. Let’s catch it together tomorrow.” The next day, the wolf found some rope and tied one end around the tiger's neck and the other around its own, and they headed towards the meadow. The wolf walked in front, with the tiger following closely behind. The donkey saw them from afar, opened its mouth wide, and began to bray even louder than before.

The tiger shouted to the wolf:

– Oh, dear friend, it’s clear you are bringing me to be this scoundrel’s prey! – and as it violently pulled away, the wolf’s head got ripped off. The tiger ran for its life until it reached home. At that moment, a magpie flew over to it. The magpie flapped its wings excitedly and asked the tiger about what had happened. After hearing the whole story, it said:

– Just hang on a moment; let me fly to the meadow and see what kind of predator it is and what it’s doing. I’ll scout it out and then report back to you, – it said. The magpie flew off to the meadow.

The donkey saw the magpie flying towards it from a distance and, pretending to be dead, lay still.

The magpie couldn’t believe its eyes. There lay the fearsome predator, seemingly lifeless.

It swooped down and started to creep around the donkey, looking for an excuse to boast that it had killed such a formidable beast. It spotted a grain of wheat lying nearby and stretched out its beak to peck at it. But as it did so, it stumbled and got its head caught on the donkey’s leg. The supposedly dead donkey suddenly sprang to life, clamped its leg around the magpie, and began to beat it with its tail. It kept beating it until the magpie was in tatters, its feathers flying everywhere. When it finally kicked the exhausted magpie away, it flew off to a distance. The magpie looked down from above, regretting its actions, chirping and lamenting, then flew away in despair, shouting back to the tiger from a distance: – Get out of this meadow while you can! Cursed beast, you have made me a lifelong cripple. Be careful; my day may come to you too! – it warned.

Upon hearing this, the tiger was terrified. It packed its things and set off for a distant land without looking back. Meanwhile, the brave donkey continued to live freely in the wide meadow.