The Lazy Donkey Story For Children With Moral (2024)

Reading has numerous benefits, particularly for children! Reading moral stories to children teaches life lessons to them in a creative and entertaining way. These stories also guide children to distinguish between right and wrong and instil moral principles in them from an early age.

In this article, we have covered “The Lazy Donkey” story in English for kids to read. With the help of this short story, your child will be able to learn new words, know how to frame sentences, improve reading skills, and will also learn an important moral lesson.

Let’s look at “The Lazy Donkey” full story, but before jumping to that, take a look at the story’s origin and history.

Origin And History Of The Lazy Donkey

“The Lazy Donkey” is Aesop’s fable that has been told and re-told many times. Thus, there are many variations of the storyline. Most of these tales were translated and edited by Reverend George Fyler Townsend in England and published under the name Aesop’s Fables.

Story Type Of The Lazy Donkey

“The Lazy Donkey” is a short story for children with an important moral value that “we should not be lazy.” You can read this story to your little one as a bedtime story.

Story Characters

The following are the characters of “The Lazy Donkey” story:

• Trader
• Donkey

The Lazy Donkey Story For Children

Once upon a time, in a village lived a small trader. He used to trade different types of things in the market for the money. The trader had one donkey and used to put sacks of goods on the donkey’s back to take them to the market to sell. The trader was very kind towards the donkey and used to care for him. He used to bathe him, kept him neat and clean, and gave him good food to eat, as the donkey was very important for his business.

The donkey was young and strong and could take many sacks on his back, carrying them to the market. But he was also very lazy and did not like to work at all. The donkey only wanted to rest, dream, eat, and sleep.

“Oh no! We have to go to market again!” the donkey used to think, “the master should take a holiday someday. I love holidays!”

But the donkey did not know that if the trader took a day off holiday, then they would not earn, and there would be no food for him and the trader.

To reach the market, they had to cross a river, and the trader used to take special care of the donkey while crossing the river.

One day, the trader heard about the huge demand for salt in the market and decided to sell it. He arranged for the sacks of salt. He loaded six sacks of salt on the donkey’s back, but they were too heavy for the donkey to walk.

“Oh, poor donkey. He could not even walk”, he said and removed one sack from his back.

They started walking towards the market and sold all the sacks of salt that day. The trader started selling salt every day. The donkey used to carry heavy sacks of salt every day to the market. A few days passed by, and the trader continued selling salt. One day, as they reached the river and were crossing it, the donkey slipped off, and some of the salt dissolved in the river water. The trader pulled the donkey out of the river. The donkey felt that the sacks on his back felt light. The next day, when the trader and the donkey were crossing the river, he again slipped, thinking that he would not have to carry the load this way.

“The donkey slipped in the river on purpose?” the trader knew.

The next day, the trader loaded eight sacks on the donkey’s back, and both of them started walking towards the market. When they were crossing the river, the donkey slipped again, but when he got up, he felt that the sacks were heavier than before.

The trader had switched the sacks of salt with sacks of cotton. The cotton absorbed the river water and became heavier.

“Haha! You thought you could fool me”, the trader said to the donkey.

The donkey carried the eight heavy sacks of cotton to the market and then came back home. From that day onwards, the donkey never dared to show laziness to his master again.

Story Summary

Continue to read the summary of “The Lazy Donkey Story”.

Once there was a trader who had a donkey. The donkey was very lazy. The trader used to cross a river and visit the market in order to sell his goods. One day, the trader and the donkey set off to sell salt in the town. They reached the river, but the poor donkey’s legs slipped, and he fell into the water. The salt in the sacks melted. The donkey was so happy that the weight of the sacks was very light. The next day the lazy donkey intentionally slipped into the river so that the salt would melt and he would not have to carry the heavy sacks. The trader knew that the donkey was lazy and thought of teaching him a lesson. He filled the sacks with cotton in place of salt. The next day the donkey slipped into the river, thinking that the salt would melt away. But, the cotton in the sack adsorbed water, and it had become heavy. The donkey realised his mistake and never tricked his master again.

Moral Of The Story

The moral of “The Lazy Donkey” story is “We must always work with sincerity and honesty. Otherwise, laziness will ruin us.”

How Can Children Apply The Moral Lesson Of The Story In Their Real Life?

“The Lazy Donkey” short story is an excellent story with a moral for kids. The children can apply the moral of this story with pictures in their real life by not being lazy and not looking for ways to avoid doing work. They should also be taught to do their work with utmost honesty and sincerity.

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