One day, a peddler was walking home with his donkey.
The donkey was loaded with some big bags of salt.
"Oh my! Whew! My legs are killing me.
This salt is so heavy.
It makes my back hurt," said the donkey.
On the way, they had to cross a stream.
In the stream, the donkey had trouble walking.
The donkey accidentally fell into the stream.
The salt dissolved in the water.
When the donkey stood up, his load had disappeared.
"Oh no, my salt!
All my salt is gone!" cried the peddler.
"Oh yes! Look at what happened!
I feel so much better now!" said the donkey.
The peddler was angry, but he could not do anything about the lost salt.
"What an unlucky day," he said.
"This is my lucky day! Hee-haw! Hee-haw!"
The donkey was so happy that he laughed and laughed. "Hee-haw, hee-haw!"
But his master did not notice.
Soon, the peddler went to the market again.
This time, he bought some big bags of sponges.
"Hmm, what is this?" said the donkey.
"This is really not a heavy load."
So the donkey happily walked with his master.
When they got close to the stream again, he thought differently.
"This load is not so heavy.
But if I fall into the stream again, maybe it will get even lighter.
It might feel like I have no load at all!"
So when they arrived at the stream, the donkey fell down.
"Oh no! My donkey fell again.
Stand up, donkey!" cried the peddler.
"Hee-haw!" The donkey cried loudly, imagining how well his trick would work!
But when he tried to stand up, he had problems.
"Oh, oh! What happened?
Why is this load so heavy?"
The donkey could hardly stand up.
"Ah! The sponges are full of water," said the peddler.
Finally, the donkey stood up.
"Oh no, my load is much heavier now!
I should not have tried to trick my master."
But it was too late.
The unhappy donkey had to carry home a load much, much heavier than before.