Catching Six Speaking Donkeys

One day King Aaron called Abunawas. He assigned him to do impossible mission.

“Abu, I want six speaking donkeys with beard. I give you a week. If you cannot get the animals, I’ll punish you.”

Abunawas was confused. He went home. He stayed home the whole day to think about the mission. On the seventh day he went to the city square where he could meet a lot of people.

Any time he met a person with beard, he asked him, “Hi, young man. What’s the day?”

Any of those persons who could answer his question correctly would be allowed to go, but for those who could not would be asked to follow him. Finally, he got six persons with wrong answers.

“What do you want from us, Abu?” asked one of them.

Abunawas didn’t answer the question, he asked another question instead. “What’s the day?”

The man answered, “Thursday.”

“Fool, It’s Wednesday,” said another

“No, It’s Monday!” said another

“Okay!  You are now confused. Tomorrow we’ll go to see the king. He’ll tell us what day it is,” said Abunawas to calm them down.

Abunawas then asked them to go to his house. He told them that the king was a humorous man. He liked jokes. So, he asked them to answer the king’s question jokingly.

The following day, Abunawas and six men went to the palace. The king and the ministers had been there for a moment waiting for Abunawas. As he saw Abunawas entering the palace, he asked, “Abu, have you got the six speaking animals?”

Abunawas whispered to them, “See, how humorous is the king!”

The king repeated the question.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Here they are!”

“Abu, what are you saying?” The king asked in a surprise tone.

“Here they are, Your Majesty,”

“They are human beings, not animals!”

“Ask them about them,” said Abunawas.

So the king asked them the name of the day one by one. None of them answered correctly. The king wondered how the men were so foolish. He said, “You are foolish like donkeys!”

“Yes, you are right, Your Majesty,” said Abunawas quictly.

“Yes, yes, you are right, Your Majesty,” said the six men.

After that, the king asked again, “Abu, where are the six speaking donkeys!”

“Your Majesty, you just said, they are donkeys. None of them can correctly answer your simple questions!” answered Abunawas.

Vocabularies:

Assigned: Menugaskan

Donkey: Keledai

Beard: Jenggot

Palace: Istana

Whispered: berbisik / Membisikan

Wondered: Heran