The Salt Merchant and His Ass

In a bustling coastal town where merchants from all over the region came to trade their goods, there lived a salt merchant named Matthias who had built a successful business transporting salt from the seaside salt pans to the inland markets where it was highly valued and needed for preserving food.

Matthias owned a sturdy donkey named Sloth who was responsible for carrying the heavy bags of salt on the long journey from the coast to the mountain villages where salt was scarce and expensive. This was demanding work that required strength, endurance, and reliability, as the salt was valuable and the mountain paths were often difficult and treacherous.

For the first few years of their partnership, Sloth had performed his duties adequately, if not enthusiastically. He was strong enough to carry the salt loads and smart enough to navigate the mountain trails, but he had never been particularly fond of hard work and was always looking for ways to make his job easier.

Sloth often complained to the other pack animals about the difficulty and monotony of his work. “Every day it’s the same thing,” he would grumble to anyone who would listen. “Heavy bags of salt, long mountain trails, and Matthias always pushing me to move faster and carry more. There has to be an easier way to make a living.”

The other animals would usually respond with practical advice about accepting one’s responsibilities and finding satisfaction in honest work, but Sloth was not interested in such conventional wisdom. He was convinced that he was smart enough to find a shortcut that would reduce his workload without reducing his value to Matthias.

One particularly hot summer day, as Sloth was carrying an especially heavy load of salt bags up a steep mountain trail, he came to a stream that crossed the path. This was a regular part of their route, and normally both Matthias and Sloth would cross the stream carefully to avoid getting the valuable salt wet.

However, on this day, Sloth was feeling particularly tired and resentful about his heavy burden. As he stepped into the stream, he deliberately stumbled and fell, allowing the salt bags to become completely soaked in the flowing water.

To Sloth’s delight, he discovered that the salt dissolved in the water, making his load dramatically lighter. What had been a back-breaking burden of heavy salt bags was now just a collection of empty, damp sacks that weighed almost nothing.

“How wonderful!” Sloth thought to himself as he easily carried the lightened load up the mountain trail. “I’ve found the perfect solution to my problem! From now on, I can make my work much easier just by taking a little tumble in the stream!”

When they reached the market, Matthias was dismayed to discover that his valuable salt cargo had been completely lost. The empty, wet sacks represented a significant financial loss that would seriously impact his business.

“Sloth, what happened?” Matthias asked with concern and frustration. “How did all the salt get dissolved? We’ve crossed that stream hundreds of times without any problems!”

Sloth put on his most innocent expression and replied, “Oh, master, I’m so sorry! I lost my footing on the slippery rocks and fell into the stream before I could stop myself. It was a terrible accident, and I feel awful about the lost salt!”

Matthias was disappointed about the financial loss, but he believed that accidents could happen to anyone, and he decided to give Sloth the benefit of the doubt. “Well, these things happen,” he said with resignation. “We’ll just have to be more careful next time.”

However, Sloth had no intention of being more careful. He was delighted with his discovery and planned to use the same trick regularly to reduce his workload. He convinced himself that a little salt loss was a reasonable price for Matthias to pay in exchange for having such a “clever” donkey.

The next week, when they made their regular salt run, Sloth deliberately repeated his performance at the stream crossing. Once again, he pretended to stumble and fall, allowing the salt to dissolve and making his load much lighter for the remainder of the journey.

And the week after that, he did it again. And again the following week. Each time, Sloth would apologize profusely for his “clumsiness” while secretly congratulating himself on his cleverness in avoiding the hard work that he disliked so much.

At first, Matthias accepted these repeated accidents as simply bad luck or perhaps a sign that Sloth was getting older and less sure-footed. But as the pattern continued week after week, the merchant began to suspect that something more deliberate was happening.

“It’s very strange,” Matthias confided to his neighbor, another merchant named David. “My donkey seems to fall in that same stream every single week, always with the same result. Either he’s the clumsiest animal in the world, or he’s doing it on purpose.”

David, who was an experienced merchant with many years of dealing with pack animals, nodded knowingly. “I’ve seen this kind of thing before,” he said. “Some animals think they’re smarter than their owners and try to find ways to avoid honest work. But if that’s what’s happening, I have an idea that might solve your problem.”

The next time Matthias prepared for a salt run, he followed David’s advice and loaded Sloth’s pack with a different kind of cargo entirely. Instead of bags of salt, he loaded the donkey with large sponges that had been thoroughly dried and compressed to take up as little space as possible.

Sloth, who hadn’t bothered to examine his load carefully, assumed that he was carrying his usual cargo of salt bags. He was looking forward to his weekly “accident” that would lighten his burden and make the mountain trail much easier to navigate.

When they reached the familiar stream, Sloth went through his usual performance, deliberately stumbling and falling into the water while pretending it was an accident.

“Oh no!” he said in his practiced voice of false distress. “I’ve fallen again, master! I’m so clumsy and unfortunate!”

But instead of becoming lighter as the salt had dissolved, Sloth’s load became dramatically heavier as the dried sponges absorbed large amounts of water from the stream. What had started as a relatively light burden was now an almost unbearably heavy load that was much more difficult to carry than even the heaviest salt bags had ever been.

Sloth struggled to get back on his feet, shocked by the unexpected weight of his pack. “What’s happening?” he gasped as he tried to stand up under the enormous burden. “Why is my load so heavy?”

Matthias looked at his donkey with a knowing smile. “Well, Sloth, it seems that your ‘clumsiness’ has finally caught up with you. Today you’re carrying sponges instead of salt, and instead of dissolving in the water, they’ve absorbed it and become much heavier.”

Sloth realized with growing horror that his master had figured out his deception and had deliberately set a trap for him. Now he was facing the consequences of his laziness and dishonesty in the form of a burden that was far heavier than anything he had ever been asked to carry before.

“Master,” Sloth pleaded, “I can explain! Perhaps we could lighten the load somehow?”

“Oh no,” Matthias replied firmly. “You’ve been quite eager to take these accidental tumbles into the stream, so I’m sure you won’t mind carrying the results all the way to the market. After all, you’ve been telling me for weeks how sorry you are about these accidents, so I’m sure you’ll want to take full responsibility for this one as well.”

The journey up the mountain trail was the most difficult and exhausting experience of Sloth’s life. The water-soaked sponges were incredibly heavy, and every step was a struggle. He had to stop frequently to rest, and by the time they reached the market, he was completely exhausted.

Worse yet, Matthias made it clear that from now on, he would be watching Sloth much more carefully and would not tolerate any more “accidents” that seemed too convenient to be genuine.

“You see, Sloth,” Matthias explained as they prepared for the return journey, “I’ve learned that you’re much more clever than I gave you credit for. But cleverness used to avoid honest work usually ends up making things harder, not easier.”

From that day forward, Sloth carried his salt loads carefully and honestly, never again trying to lighten his burden through deception. He had learned that attempting to avoid work through trickery often results in even more difficult consequences than simply doing the job properly in the first place.

Moral: Trying to avoid honest work through clever tricks and deception usually backfires and creates even more difficulties than simply doing the job properly. Laziness and dishonesty often result in harder work and lost trust, while diligence and reliability are ultimately easier and more rewarding.