Once, a merchant lived in a city. He had a donkey who was lame. Every day, the merchant used to load his donkey with salt and took him to other cities. He would sell the salt in the market and return home at night.

To go to the neighboring cities, they had to cross a stream. As the donkey was lame, he found it difficult to cross the stream. Also, the load on his back was very heavy.

One day, while crossing, the donkey fell into the stream. A lot of salt got dissolved in the water. As a result, the load on his back felt lighter. That day, he easily crossed the stream.

The next day, he again fell into the water. But, this time he did it knowingly. The same thing now happened regularly. The master understood the ploy. “This fellow is playing a trick with me every day. Tomorrow, I’ll play a trick with him,” he thought.

As the merchant had planned, he loaded the donkey with cotton. While crossing the stream, he deliberately fell into the water. However, this time, the load became heavier. He had to carry it with great difficulty. Since then, he never repeated the trick again.

Moral: Evil tricks will not work all the time.