There was a donkey who pulled a farmer's plow.
"This work is too hard," he thought, so he prayed to Zeus for a new master.
Zeus gave him to a potter who made him carry heavy baskets of clay.
The unhappy donkey then prayed to Zeus again, who gave him to a tanner, the cruelest master of all.
"Woe is me!" groaned the donkey. "This newest master shows no mercy now while I'm alive, and he'll show no mercy when I'm dead. This tanner will turn me into leather and make me into whips to be used on other donkeys."
Inspired by: Mille Fabulae et Una, a collection of Latin fables that I've edited, free to read online. I am not translating the Latin here; instead, I am just telling a 100-word version of the fable.
Notes: This is fable 769 in the book, which is Perry 179. I added the bit at the end about making the donkey into a whip.
(illustration in Croxall's Aesop)
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