The Ass and His Purchaser

Summary


"The Ass and His Purchaser" is a short Aesop fable about a man who devises a clever test before committing to buying a donkey. Rather than working the animal or measuring its strength, he simply watches which companion it gravitates toward in the straw-yard. When the new ass immediately sides with the laziest, greediest animal in the group, the buyer needs no further proof. The fable delivers its sharp lesson about character and judgment in just a few brisk, telling lines.

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A Man wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he should try out the animal before he bought him. He took the Ass home and put him in the straw-yard with his other Asses, upon which the new animal left all the others and at once joined the one that was most idle and the greatest eater of them all. Seeing this, the man put a halter on him and led him back to his owner. On being asked how, in so short a time, he could have made a trial of him, he answered, “I do not need a trial; I know that he will be just the same as the one he chose for his companion.”


Credits

Aesop was an ancient Greek storyteller, believed to have lived around 620–564 BCE, credited with hundreds of fables that use animals to illuminate human nature. His works have been retold and translated across centuries, remaining among the most widely read moral tales in the world. "The Ass and His Purchaser" is one of his more concise fables, distilling its entire argument into a single observed moment.