In a village, there lived a potter named Mangu, who made beautiful pots and sold them around the villages near by. People waited for Mangu’s rounds to buy his pots.
Mangu’s pots made him quite rich. But he did not like to give a paisa to anyone. He had a donkey, called Babu, on which he carried his pots for sale. The poor donkey was a sorry-looking creature, because Mangu did not feed him well enough.
Mangu’s wife cared for Babu and saw how thin he had become. She felt very sorry for the poor creature. One day, Mangu’s wife decided to teach Mangu a lesson.
When she had fed and groomed Babu, she took a small pin and put it in the sack on Babu’s back. As usual, Mangu came out in the morning and began to put pots into the sacks on Babu’s back. Then, holding a stick in his hand, Mangu began his rounds.
For a while all went well. Then the pin slipped and, with the weight of the pots, it began to prick Babu. He wriggled a bit, and got whacked by the potter.
Babu felt the pin poking him and took off at top speed! He shot through the villages with bits and pieces of broken pots flying in all directions as villagers watched in wonder.
They saw Mangu racing after his donkey with a stick in his hand, yelling, “Stop him! Stop him! That’s my donkey!”
The villagers joined the chase and there was soon a crowd of men and children following the donkey and Mangu as they all galloped through fields and country roads. Soon the sacks were empty and worked loose. In a while, the sacks flew off too.
Babu finally stopped as there was nothing poking him. He stood in a field, frightened that his master would beat him for having broken all the pots.
By then Mangu and the villagers reached him and Mangu was very angry. Suddenly, one of the children piped up, “Poor fellow, he is so thin! Mangu Kaka, Don’t you give him any food?”
Mangu had raised his stick to hit his donkey, but hearing this voice, he stopped and brought his hand down. The villagers crowded around, and all of them began to discuss how miserable the poor donkey looked.
“I’ll lend you my donkey,” said one of them, “He’s strong and well fed.”
Mangu was so ashamed that after that day, he made sure that his wife and Babu were cared for properly.
