A donkey story.

This story was told by Azim Premji, the chairman of Wipro. I found this really interesting.



Once there was a farmer and his donkey. The donkey was with the farmer for a long time and was ever faithful to his master. One day they were walking together along a small pond on the farmer's land. Suddenly the donkey slipped and fell into the pond.

Now the donkey had been very faithful to his master and had served his master without any complaints for a long time. So the donkey was sure that his master would save him and started to call out for help. But the farmer seeing the poor donkey drowning in the pond thought " Well... my donkey is very old. I dont think he can do much work now. I have been planning to get a new donkey soon. Might as well cover up this useless pond so that further accidents dont happen."

So he called all his friends to cover up the pond. Soon several baskets of mud came raining down on the drowing donkey and began filling the pond. The animal did not understand as to what was happening. Why is his master not trying to save him. The realisation came slow and painful. There was nobody who was going to save the donkey. If the donkey wanted to get out of the pond. he will have to do it himself.

As soon as this became clear, the animal began to shake the mud off his body. Each time mud poured onto his body, he would shake it off and try to remain above the water. Soon the pond started filling up and the donkey waited patiently. Eventually the pond was filled with enough mud that the donkey could simply walk out of it.


I guess each one of us is a donkey. And we expect a lot from the farmer who becomes the world we live in. And each time we fall into the pond of sorrows or difficulties, we expect the world to save us.

The choice is about walking out of the pond on your own or getting buried in it.