Ethiopian Folktales

Narrated by Mohammed Ahmed

Once upon a time there was a family, a man, his wife and their daughter and unfortunately all three of them were deaf. So one evening the husband decided to take the donkey down to the river to get him to drink some water. So he took his donkey and went down to the river.

And when he went down to the river, there were a lot of herdsmen who had their cattle drinking and they said, “Hey, listen, mister, our cattle are drinking. Since yours is a donkey, let our cattle drink first.”

But the deaf man said, “I’m sorry, my donkey’s not for sale.”

And they wondered what was wrong with him.

They said, “We don’t care if your donkey’s for sale or not, we don’t want him drinking before our cattle.” (Cattle are more prestigious.)

And the man looked up and said, “Didn’t you hear what I said? My donkey’s not for sale.”

So obviously they thought he was mad and they just stayed quiet, and the donkey drank his fill and they returned home.

He went back home to the kitchen and said to his wife, “Would you believe it? I met some merchants today and they were insisting on buying my donkey but I told them that my donkey’s not for sale.”

The wife looked up and she hadn’t heard a word and she said, “Well, if you insist on divorcing me, I won’t spend another night with you. I’m going to my parents.”

So she left him and, as she was gathering her things to go, their daughter came in and the wife looked up and said, “Would you believe it? After all these years, your father’s telling me to go home.”

The daughter looked up with a shy smile and said, “Well, you are my parents, and if you want to arrange my marriage I will consent to your wishes.”

So the moral of the story is – you hear whatever you want to hear.