A merchant's animals transpire to get out of work but one animal ends up paying the price for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong.
In the tale of Arabian Nights the Vizier told his daughter Shahrazad a tale of an ox and a donkey who couldn’t seem to keep his nose out of someone else’s business.
There was once a merchant who had been blessed with the gift of knowing the language of the animals. He was sworn to secrecy of this gift and in honoring his promise he was blessed with much wealth.
One evening while sitting outside enjoying the evening, he overheard a conversation between his ox and donkey. The ox had just come in from working a very long hard day in the fields, he was exhausted, his bed was dirty and he was fed slop to eat. The donkey not having to work was relaxing on a fresh bed of hay eating crisp carrots. The donkey looked over at the Ox and asked him why he was so troubled. The Ox began to complain that the donkey had it easy; he got to lounge around and sleep all day while he, the ox, had to go out into the fields and plow all day long, subject to a whip and when he gets to his bed he is not given any of the same luxuries as the donkey.
The donkey, who thought of himself as being very wise, mulled over the problem in his head for a few moments and then told him to act sick so that the plowman would not be able to use him in the fields and when it is time to eat to not touch the food until they took such pity on the ox that they hand fed it to him. The ox thought this was good advice and he decided he would follow through with it the next day.
The next morning when the plowman brought the ox to the field he just fell. The ox continued to do this until nightfall. The plowman brought the ox back to the stable and took pity on him thinking that he was sick. The plowman then went to the merchant and told him what had transpired. The merchant, knowing what the donkey and the ox had discussed, told the plowman to use the donkey to plow the fields should he have trouble with the ox again.
The next day the plowman tried to use the ox again but he would not work. So he returned him to the stable early and then took donkey out to the field and forced the donkey to do the ox’s work. That night the merchant listened to the conversation between the two animals. The ox was quite grateful to the donkey for taking his place out in the fields. The poor donkey had been badly beaten out in the field and was exhausted by the time he was finally able to rest. He was so angry with the ox’s happiness at not having to work that he would not answer him. The donkey went to his trough and said to himself “All this happened to me because of my miscalculation. I would be sitting pretty, but for my curiosity. If I don’t find a way to return this ox to his former situation I will perish.” He fell asleep as the ox continued to chew his cud and bless him for taking his place.
