One winter Nasraddin had very little money. His crops had been very bad that year, and he had to live very cheaply. He gave his donkey less food, and when after two days the donkey looked just the same, he said to himself,  “The donkey was used to eating a lot. Now he is quickly getting used to eating less; and soon he will get used to living on almost nothing.”

Each day Nasraddin gave the donkey a little less food, until it was hardly eating anything.

Then one day, when the donkey was going to the market with a load of wood on its back, it suddenly died. “How unlucky I am,” said Nasraddin. “Just when my donkey had got used to easting hardly anything, it came to the end of its days in this world.”