THE ASS WITH A LOAD OF SALT.
A man drove his ass down to the coast to buy a load of salt, and on his way home the ass fell in the midst of a stream. The salt, of course, did not take long to melt, and so the ass lost his load, and came home fresh and gay. The next day the man set off to the coast for some more salt, and put the load on his ass once more. As they went through the stream, the ass took care to fall down just at the same spot, and thus got rid of his load this time too. But the man, who now saw the trick, made a plan to cure the ass of it. He bought a large load of sponge, and put it on the back of the beast, and drove him, for the third time, to the coast. By and by they came to the stream, when the ass thought to play his old pranks. But the sponge got wet through, and the ass found to his cost that so far from a light load, he had now on his back one which was ten times the weight of the first.
If a man cheats me once, shame on him. If he cheats me twice, shame on me.