The Lion and the Donkey

A hunter shot a lioness on the banks of a river. She had gone there to drink water. He skinned the lioness, and while he was doing it, he found that she had been pregnant and that she was about to give birth. As she fell to the ground, the cubs came out. 

The hunter was not interested in the cubs because they had no value for him. He just took the skin and walked away. 

All except one died. This last cub was found by a laundry man who used to wash his clothes by the side of the river. He took compassion on it, carried it home and looked after it until it recovered. 

Here in India laundry men use donkeys to carry their clothes to and from the river. Even today this happens. The lion grew up as a pet in the laundry man’s house. When it became big and strong enough, it was put to work carrying dirty clothes down to the river. 

The lion grew up thinking that it was a donkey because it spent all its time with the other donkeys. It developed donkey habits because it lived with donkeys. In the same way that children learn bad habits from their parents, this lion ended up believing it was a donkey because everyone treated it like one. It even ate grass like the other donkeys.

One day another lion came to drink water from this river. As he was approaching, all the donkeys, including the lion who thought he was a donkey, ran away.

“This is very strange,” thought the lion. “It looks like a lion but it is living with donkeys and behaving like a donkey. I will go and find out what is really going on.”

The lion ran after the retreating donkeys and pounced on the lion who was living with them. “Why are you living with these donkeys?” he asked. “And why are you afraid of me? Why did you run away when I came to drink? We are both lions. Why did you run off with the donkeys?”

“I am not a lion,” said the other lion. “Please don’t joke with me. I am a donkey. And please don’t eat me or hurt me. Let me go back to my brothers and sisters.”

The lion again told him, “You are a lion.” 

But the other lion said, “How can I believe a statement like this? I don’t feel like a lion. I feel like a donkey. All my life l have been a donkey. How can I believe such a stupid statement? It is not my experience.” 

The first lion took the laundry man’s lion to the banks of the river and showed him his reflection. “Look,”  he said, “there is your face and here is mine. Can you now accept that we are the same animal?”

The second lion had to agree. First he had been told, now he really believed it. “Now,” said the first lion, “since you now know that you are a lion, open your mouth and give a great roar.”

Up until that time the second lion had been braying like a donkey. Having learned all its habits from the donkeys, it even ended up sounding like one. But now, with the conviction that it was a real lion, it opened its mouth and for the first time in its life uttered a great lion’s roar. 

It could roar because it knew it was a lion. Before it could only bleat and bray.