You must be acquainted with the Panchatantra collection of stories during your childhood. These stories have a reputation for their wisdom about practical life. The tales are beautifully narrated, with birds and animals being the main characters. Thus, they provide precious life lessons in a light-hearted manner. Children love short stories and especially if the stories have pictures. The Musical Donkey full story is one of the most famous stories from the Panchatantra collection. It can be used for role plays, storytelling sessions, and school competitions. So, let’s look at The Musical Donkey story in English!
Origin And History Of The Musical Donkey
The Musical Donkey Story is part of the Panchatantra stories written in Sanskrit by the Indian author and scholar Vishnu Sharma between 1200 CE and 300 CE. These stories were written to educate the three princes who were the sons of King Amarashakti. The princes didn’t understand the conventional methods of teaching, and hence they were taught through these stories. The Panchatantra stories are based on five practices or principles – gaining friends, losing friends, loss of gains, of crows and owls, and rash deeds/ ill-considered actions.
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Story Type Of The Musical Donkey
The Musical Donkey is a short moral story or fable and is part of the Panchatantra collection of animal stories in India. This story is easy to understand and helps spark curiosity among its readers.
Story Characters
The main characters in the story are the donkey and the jackal. The secondary characters are the washerman (donkey’s master) and the farmers.
The Musical Donkey Story For Children
Once upon a time, in a village, there lived a washerman and his extremely weak donkey. The donkey would carry the washerman’s heavy bags of laundry to the river bank for washing and back during the day. The donkey was not happy with the food that was provided to him by the washerman. So, at night, when he was left free, he would go to graze in the nearby fields.
However, he wouldn’t go to graze in the nearby fields. Instead, he slyly went to the neighbouring farms and devoured the different vegetables. Before the sun rose, he would return to the washerman’s house.
On one of his daily rounds on the nearby farms, the donkey met a jackal, and they became really close friends who would meet every night.
On one particular night, the jackal came to the donkey and said, “Friend, I have some good news for you! I have found a farm where the farmers are growing juicy, ripe cucumbers. I’m confident I’ll find some food for myself over there. Let’s go there and fill our bellies!”
Every night they went to the farm where the donkey would eat the cucumbers while the jackal kept guard in case they got caught. This way, the donkey put on weight and became healthy after eating the cucumbers.
One night, the donkey ate way too many cucumbers and was very happy. He decided to sing a song to express his happiness. He told the jackal, “The moon is beautiful tonight. I am overwhelmed with happiness and feel like singing a song. Which song should I sing?”
Hearing this, the jackal got worried! He said, “Friend, do not act foolish. We are here to steal the cucumbers and not get caught. We have to be as quiet as possible. Even though you think you have a beautiful voice, you don’t. So please, let’s just eat the cucumbers quietly and leave quickly. If we get caught, the farmers around will beat us black and blue with their sticks.”
Hearing this, the donkey scolded him, “Since you are a wild animal, you can never appreciate beautiful music. You are just jealous of my melodious voice. Here, let me show you how well I can sing.”
When the jackal understood that the donkey would definitely start singing, he told him, “Please wait till I exit the farm and keep an eye on the farmers. Then you can start with your singing.” The jackal then ran away and hid.
The donkey then looked up to the moon and started singing or rather braying at the top of his voice. He was mighty pleased with himself and continued even louder.
It was a full-moon night, where things could be seen very clearly. Hearing the loud braying, the farmers came rushing out with their sticks to find the source of the loud, disturbing noise. They were upset to see the donkey on the farm.
The annoyed farmers ran and chased the donkey and beat him up really bad with their sticks. The donkey fell to the ground because of his injuries, and the farmers hung a wooden mortar around his neck. They then released him.
When he saw the donkey fully injured and limping out of the farm, the jackal ran towards him and laughed at his face. He sarcastically said, “Wow, friend, that was a brilliant performance! Even the farmers appreciated your melodious voice and talent and decided to reward you with this necklace!”
Story Summary
The summary of the story The Musical Donkey is as follows:
Once upon a time, in a village lived a washerman and his weak donkey. He made the donkey carry heavy laundry loads during the day. And in the night, he would leave him where he would graze the neighbouring fields and farms to eat the crops.
One night, the donkey met a jackal, and they became close friends. They both went out to a farm where they found cucumbers and ate to their heart’s content. After a tasty cucumber meal, the donkey was so happy, and he decided to sing a song. The jackal got worried and warned him not to sing as they would get caught. The donkey did not pay heed to the jackal, brushed his concerns off and started singing. Before he could do so, the jackal quickly jumped over the fence and hid from plain sight. On hearing the donkey braying and making loud noises on the farm, the farmers woke up as their sleep was disturbed and rushed out to catch hold of the donkey and beat him up. The jackal then met the donkey outside the farm and made fun of him. The donkey then realised that he had made a mistake and should have thought about the consequences before singing aloud.
Moral Of The Story
This story has two morals which would help kids and adults alike. The first one is – “Everything has a time and place”. And the second moral is – “Think before you act”. Learning is very crucial and helps in day-to-day life.
How Can Children Apply The Moral In Their Real Life?
It is human nature to act promptly without thinking. Children can learn from this short story with pictures to pause, think about the consequences, and act accordingly. Acting promptly without giving it a thought is known to have ill effects and can hurt the other person’s feelings. Therefore, it’s important to be mindful of everything that’s happening around you and then act. Also, certain acts are appropriate only for particular situations. One should think about this, too, before taking any action.
Also Read:
A Wise Parrot Story for Children with Moral
The Dog And The Rabbit Moral Story for Kids
Moral Story of The Tiger And The Woodpecker for Children
