In a faraway place and a long-ago time, there was once a rich man who gave all his money to the poor, joined a band of hermits, and went to live with them in the desert and worship God. One day the man was sent to town with another hermit to sell two donkeys that had grown old, and could no longer carry their burdens.
He stood in the marketplace, where shoppers looking for donkeys came. They asked if his were worth buying. “If they were worth buying, do you think we’d be selling them?” he replied. “And why do they have such ragged backs and tails?” he was asked. “Because they’re old and stubborn,” he said. “We have to pull their tails and thrash them to make them move.”
Since there were no buyers for the donkeys, the man returned with them to the desert, where his companion told the other hermits what had happened. All of them demanded to know why he had frightened the buyers away. “Do you imagine for a moment,” he answered, “that I left home, gave everything away—all my camels and cattle and sheep and goats—in order to make a liar of myself for the sake of two old donkeys?”