Mularam, the washerman, had a donkey. In a house near by, there was a musician who practised singing every day. Mularam’s donkey would listen to him and longed to sing like him. Whenever he opened his mouth, all he could do was bray!
One night as the donkey was eating his dinner of hay and oats, he heard a group of crickets chirruping.
“What beautiful music!” thought the donkey. He searched in the stable and soon found the crickets. They fell silent when they saw the donkey.
“Sir,” said the donkey very politely, “I like the way you sing. Your voices are so beautiful and it is so enjoyable to hear you singing together. Would you teach me too?”
The crickets were quite flattered and agreed to teach him. But though they tried very hard yet they could not change his voice. He always brayed!
“What do you do for a sweet voice?” asked the donkey in despair.
“We drink the morning dew,” said the crickets.
“Ah! Then I must do that too!” decided the donkey.
So from the next day onwards, the donkey began to drink the morning dew. He wouldn’t touch hay and oats at all. At first, Mularam did not notice it. Then he saw the hay and oats lying untouched. He wondered if the donkey was ill. He gave him some tonic. But it didn’t help.
In a few days, the donkey was lying down looking weak and tired. Now, Mularam was worried. He called the village vet to check his donkey. The vet gave some very nasty medicines for the donkey.
A spider had been watching the donkey all these days. He was a wise old fellow and knew what the trouble was. One night, he spoke to the donkey.
“Hullo,” he said, “Don’t you think you should eat the hay and oats now?” The tired donkey said, “Oh! It’s you. How can I sing if I eat that?”
“Well, dew is not going to help you. I can make webs, but I can’t carry things like you, can I? Each one of us has different talents. You can’t sing like the crickets. But Mularam loves you, not the crickets,” advised the old spider seriously.
The donkey thought about the spider’s advice and said, “You are right. I should be a good donkey instead of trying to be a bad cricket!”
He ate all the hay and oats. The next day, Mularam saw his donkey looking very fit and was delighted. He didn’t know that it was the spider’s medicine that had worked!
Moral: Don’t imitate others; be yourself.
