The coat and the donkey

There was once a very clever man whose wife was very stupid but had a very, very good heart. One evening, when the husband was not at home, the wife was working in front of the house. She had a fire burning so that she could see what she was doing.

It was very cold that night, and someone approached her and asked if he could stand by the fire to warm up. The man was shivering, so she said, “All right. You stand here.” Then she asked him, “Where do you come from?”

He said, “I come from Heaven.”

She said, “You come from Heaven? Oh, have you any news about my father?”

He said, “Yes, yes, your father and I are roommates. I know him very, very well.”

She said, “What is my father’s name?”

The rogue lived near her village, so he knew her father’s name. When he said the name, the woman was so delighted.

She said, “Oh, yes, yes! That is right. How is my father?”

The man said, “Your father is fine, but in Heaven it is also very, very cold. What he needs is a good, thick coat.”

She said, “He needs a thick coat? What can I do? Are you planning to go back to Heaven?”

He said, “Yes, tonight I am going back to Heaven.”

She said, “Can you do me a favour?”

The man said, “Certainly.”

The woman went into her house and brought out her husband’s brand new, very beautiful, warm coat and gave it to the man. “Please, please, take this and give it to my father,” she said.

He said, “Of course, I will give it to your father. He will be so grateful to you and so proud that you still care for him.”

She said, “Oh, my father was so affectionate to me. This much I can do for him. And my husband also liked my father very much. So there will be no problem.”

So the man went away with the coat. Soon the husband came home. His wife was so excited. She said, “Look, look, I have done something very great today.”

He said, “What have you done?”

She said, “Somebody who came from Heaven told me that my father is suffering from the cold there. When I heard it, I felt very sorry for my father. So I gave him your new coat. My father loved you so much and you also loved him. So I thought you wouldn’t mind.”

The husband became very pale. Then he started walking out of the house. The wife said, “You are not going to leave me!”

The husband was so mad. He said, “I am not going to leave you? I have already left you! You are a fool! I am going away and I will not come back unless and until I have found a greater fool than you.”

The wife started crying and crying. Then she started praying to God, “O God, I have lost my husband. Please let him find a greater fool than I. I don’t think I am really a fool. I am a sincere person with a good heart. But my husband does not trust my good heart; he thinks I am a fool. Only my father in Heaven can appreciate me. He had a big heart and I inherited his big heart.”

Meanwhile, the husband set out in search of the rogue who had stolen his coat. He was walking very, very fast, hoping to catch him. After some time, all of a sudden he saw someone a few metres ahead of him wearing his coat. He said, “Ah, now let me see what I can do.”

He followed the man secretly and watched him enter into a small house. The man left the coat there and then went away. Then the husband approached the house. In front of the house was a donkey. The husband began looking at the donkey with tremendous devotion and bowing down to it.

The lady of the house came out and said to him, “What are you doing? Why are you bowing down again and again to the donkey?”

He said, “Only a few months ago I lost my brother-in-law. He had been very, very kind to me and I had been kind to him. My brother-in-law’s face looked exactly like your donkey’s. That is why I was so moved by the donkey and why I am showing it all my affection. I am talking to him by nodding, since I don’t know donkey language.

“Will you do me a favour? Will you allow me to take this donkey to my house just for tonight? I want to show it to my wife, since she was so fond of her brother. She misses him like anything and every day sheds bitter tears over him. If I could show her this donkey, she would be able to see her brother’s face. Perhaps the face of this donkey can give her some consolation.”

The lady said, “All right, take it. But tomorrow morning please bring it back.”

The man said, “Definitely, definitely I will return it tomorrow.”

Then quite unexpectedly the woman said, “This donkey is our favourite animal. It is very cold out tonight, so let me put my husband’s coat on it to keep it warm.” Then she brought out the coat and put it on the donkey.

The lady said, “Tomorrow, when you bring the donkey back, please don’t forget to bring the coat. Otherwise, my husband will be mad. Just a little while ago he came in and told me that it was a very good coat that he had bought for a very cheap price. My husband will be very mad if he loses it. So please bring it back.”

The man said, “Definitely I will bring it back. When I return the donkey, I will bring back the coat also.”

So the man took the donkey and the coat. After covering only a short distance he freed the donkey and went away with his coat. The donkey went back to its owner’s house and started braying in the street. When the owner came back, he said to his wife, “What is the donkey doing in the street?”

The wife said, “You don’t know what happened! Somebody came here who was miserable because he lost his brother-in-law. The brother-in-law looked exactly like this donkey.” Then she told him the whole story. Finally she said, “But look at this rogue! He has not brought back the coat!”

The husband said, “What coat?”

She said, “Since it was cold, I gave him your new coat for the donkey to wear. He promised that he would bring back both the donkey and the coat tomorrow morning. He has returned the donkey, but he has taken away the coat.”

The man was furious, but what could he do?

So the first man succeeded in finding a greater fool than his own wife. Even if the woman had not given him the coat he would have accomplished what he had set out to do. He could have taken the donkey and sold it, and with the money he could have bought another coat. But quite unexpectedly the lady gave him the coat, so he didn’t even have to go to the trouble of selling the donkey. He just left it and went away with his own coat.