The Child's Story: The Lesson That Failed

Karagöz's wife sighed and said:

"Oh, this dreadful donkey! This vile, stubborn, loud-voiced creature! The moment he smells the spring breeze, his wits scatter to the winds and he goes stark mad!"

That very morning, while Karagöz's wife was on her way to the market, she met a dervish sitting by the roadside. His face was sallow and thin, but for all that he seemed perfectly happy and content. So Karagöz's wife stopped, gave him a loaf of bread, and said, "You appear to be hungry, sir."

The dervish smiled, put the bread in his bag, and said: "Hunger is nothing but a weakness, and it must not be acknowledged, for hunger begets greed, and greed begets selfishness and an evil spirit!"

Karagöz's wife said, "That is true, and I shall show him — I shall starve him until he becomes meek and quiet!" Then she nodded her head and bade him farewell.

When she fed the donkey that day, she looked at him with an eye full of earnestness and severity and said: "Listen: hunger begets greed, and greed begets an evil spirit; for this reason alone will I throw the barley into the sack!" And when she carried out her words, the poor donkey found himself taking half his usual food in the twinkling of an eye.

Day after day Karagöz's wife went on giving him this scanty measure of food, and as a result he no longer flared up as he used to do before; he grew weak, without the strength to kick Karagöz as was his habit. As for Karagöz's wife, she was very happy at this, and said to her husband: "Did I not tell you I would rid him of that evil spirit? Look at the sums we are saving!"

Karagöz agreed and said: "Very well! Then cut his food down still more, and before long we shall be able to save a great deal of money! You are a clever, skillful woman, my dear!"

And when Karagöz's wife went to the donkey with two handfuls of barley in a little bowl, he looked at her, shook himself with a sigh, and closed his eyes.

When Karagöz's wife heard his weary sigh, she flung the bowl to the ground and hurried out of the stable, crying, "Karagöz! The donkey is dead!" And at that very moment he brayed.

Karagöz's wife shrieked and said: "Well! Did you hear that? He never died at all!"

Whereupon she took the barley measure from the corner and filled it to overflowing with barley; then she went to the stable, threw it down under the donkey's nose, and cried: "You wicked, good-for-nothing beast! I starved you to make a saint and a holy man of you; I made you as meek as a hermit... But so long as there is evil in the heart, it comes out at the mouth. I shall do no more. Let your wickedness grow. Here is food — eat and fill yourself until that evil end of yours which you are bound to reach: you deserve it!"

But the donkey buried his nose in the food, as if to say, "Well now, this suits me!"