The Pastor and His Donkey - by Anonymous

 

 The Pastor and His Donkey 

- by Anonymous -

The Pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won. The Pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again and it won again.  

The local paper read: PASTOR'S ASS OUT FRONT! 

The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the Pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.  

The next day the local paper headline read: BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR'S ASS.

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Pastor to get rid of the donkey. 

The Pastor decided to give it to a Nun in a nearby convent.  

The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day: NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.   

The Bishop fainted. He informed the Nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey so she sold it to a farmer for $10.  

The next day the paper read: NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10!  

This was too much for the Bishop so he ordered the Nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild.  

The next day the headlines read: NUN ANNOUNCES HER ASS IS NOW WILD AND FREE.  The Bishop was buried the next day !  

The "Lazy" Student ~ by Hénock Gugsa

 

 

The "Lazy" Student *

[totally revised, edited, and translated]

 by Hénock Gugsa

Modern education finally arrived in rural Ethiopia.  Students began to be taught not only reading and writing but also basic arithmetic.  Some students were very bright and were advancing pretty well in their studies, but others were finding the going pretty near impossible.   But, the situation was especially more challenging to the teachers who had to improvise and find new ways of teaching. 

One such teacher began a method called "Applied Arithmetic" .... Basically, he was now using examples from daily rural life to make problems comprehensible and solvable to students.  Among his charge was one particular student who was finding the concept of "subtraction" completely incomprehensible.

“Look,” said the teacher, “Say you have five sheep in a pasture. If one sheep goes away from the herd,  scampers off  by itself and escapes, how many sheep would you now have left? ”

“ None,” replied the student firmly.

“Incredible! ” said the teacher with a heavy sigh.  “How did you arrive at that answer? ”

“This one actually made sense to me, teacher, ” said the wide-eyed student.  “If one sheep goes, all the rest will follow! ”

The teacher gave up.  He couldn't begin to argue with a student who was also a shepherd boy.

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* inspired by an Amhara folk tale from Ethiopia that was narrated by Kassa Alamrew