One day donkey was drinking water by the pond. It saw reflection and felt happy at its beauty. It was overjoyed to see its expressive eyes and big ears. It felt worthy and symbolic. It reflected that it was not only handsome but also the greatest working animal that transformed poor societies into rich societies. It was proud that it carried goods, whereas horses throw them. It thought that it was more even headed than horses. If humans would have taken it to wars, then wars would never have happened due to its calming effect.
Suddenly, the donkey got curious, "Why the prince still considered horses as smart, beautiful, strong and fast?" As it wanted an honest answer, so it decided to go to a wise sage, who happened to be an African elephant.
It travelled high hills, deep waters and long deserts and reached Africa. A gigantic majestic elephant was ambling in the wild. To seek his attention, it blared louder than normal. The silence of the jungle was suddenly filled with a blare. The elephant asked donkey the cause of arrival. The donkey was hungry and thirsty, still, it managed to ask a question," Dear wise elephant, I travelled from far off land to know the answer from wisest of wise, noblest of noble, Why the prince does not ride on my back when he goes out with princess? Why horses always think of themselves as royal and I am always looked like a pauper. Why cannot I be respected as a horse, which is always so well fed and treated?"
The elephant was watchful and wise and so, offered donkey bucketful water to drink and basketful food to eat and asked him to relax first. Once donkey had gone for rest, the wise elephant was in predicament how it should answer the donkey. The elephant thought and thought, but it felt that donkey will remain donkey, even if it travels to New York, Milan, Tokyo, or even Mecca. Wise elephant whispered to himself, "As elephant can never turn himself into lion king, so does donkey can never turn himself into a horse." But this answer would not have calmed the donkey, so elephant decided that it would answer the question diplomatically.
Next day, when donkey visited elephant, the elephant said, "Oh Intelligent and friendly donkey, I feel hurt that your bother that humans don`t respect you for your service. They have always been selfish as they gave names to all who served them, even loyal and faithful dogs were not spared. As with faith and fearlessness, with planning and persistence, with talk and action, the powerful and wise on Earth have met their destiny and so will you. As you are known to me for your calm, diligence, peace, humility and service, but you never travel enough to let the living know you better. Please travel far and wide to let the living know that you are loyal and steady, which is as good as being smart and fast."
As donkey had become more adventurous and confident due to its long travel, so it misheard the words of majestic elephant and took them as boring appreciation. As it no longer wanted to look stupid and dull, so it decided to trip non-stop as widely as possible and tell animals about itself as much as possible. When donkey was finalizing its travel adventures in a hurry, an eagle was watching donkey from the treetop. It had also secretly heard the talk while at the mountain top when donkey and elephant were talking. It got hungrier at the sight of the donkey, as it had never tasted donkey flesh and remembered Chinese saying, "In heaven, there is dragon meat, and on earth, there is donkey meat." As the Eagle thought foolish and stupid donkey was pondering over some worthless travel, so it admonished donkey why he is wasting precious time pondering on something invaluable like humans.
On knowing about donkey new found a passion for travel and adventure, eagle offered donkey that it would teach donkey paragliding, bungee jumping and skydiving, which humans enjoy so much and horses will never able to do. The donkey thought that horse would have challenged eagle to race with him and never bothered about all those funny sports. The donkey also wanted to challenge the eagle but feared defeat. As donkey had seen eagle before doing exciting adventures many times, still wisdom told him that it was the devil and voracious bird thriving on corpses and carcasses.
So pretending smart, it left eagle by saying that first, it wanted to see the sea as aged tortoise was waiting for him. The donkey knew a wise aged tortoise there at calm south sea. It went to a far off beautiful beach to meet his friend but found tortoise was in deep sleep. So while waiting at the beach, it saw a distant crocodile was also basking in the Sun. Donkey climbed on nearby large hard rock and told crocodile about his plan to explore the ocean and know about ocean species as some humans do and which horses can never dream. Crocodile readily agreed to teach donkey scuba diving and snorkelling. As Donkey was nearing crocodile in water for learning snorkelling and scuba diving, a voice of tortoise cautioning about the ill intention of crocodile fell into donkey`s big ears. The tortoise called, "Oh animal, it will drown you in the sea and then eat." The donkey had also previously heard that crocodiles hunt for many terrestrial animals as they have more muscles and bones, so he ran as fast as he could to save his life and felt good at being a donkey.
Now Donkey thought it is wiser to travel north towards mountains. As mountain climbing was fraught with rocky terrains and ever-changing weather, so it was more fun. As donkey moved north to mountains, it was thrilled at the expectation of skiing and mountain climbing and conquering mountains as humans do. It saw a distant snow bear playing with its` cubs. It thought, perhaps it could teach him all mountain sports, but what if it hunts him for his cubs. Again donkey felt great about his foresight and wisdom and realized that everything good was within him.
As he was travelling east to his home, donkey met unhappy mules, zonkeys and zorses, who were blaming their parents for their changed and lost identity. During talks, it eventually realized that he must be proud to be a donkey and only donkey. So now the foolish opinion of selfish humans no longer troubled it and so-called strength of horses looked insignificant to him and voice of sage elephant echoed in his ears," You are loyal and steady, which is as good as being smart and fast. Also, selfish humans always give bad names to trusted ones to tame them".
Moral: It is better to live your destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection.