During a conversation with Tamerlane, Hodja started bragging about his donkey. “He is so smart that I can teach him even how to read,” he said.
“Then go ahead and teach him reading. I give you 3 months,” Tamerlane ordered. Hodja went home and began to train his donkey. He put its feed between the pages of a big book, and taught it to turn the pages by its tongue to find its feed. Three days before the three month period was over, he stopped feeding it.
When he took his donkey to Tamerlane, he asked for a big book and put it in front of the donkey. The hungry animal turned the pages of the book one by one with its tongue, and when it couldn’t find any feed between the pages it started braying. Tamerlane watched the donkey closely and then said, “This is sure a strange way of reading!”
Hodja remarked, “But this is how a donkey reads.”