Humility is a praiseworthy trait that we should all adorn ourselves with. It is one of the most important morals that bring friends closer to us and make us bound together without any feeling of grudge or resentment—especially since arrogance takes its place when the trait of humility is absent from us.
The donkey Kurkūsh lived in the beautiful forest alongside his neighbors the animals, where they lived in adjacent houses. A neighbor has rights over his neighbor: not to be arrogant or proud toward him. But Kurkūsh was not like that. He would walk every day in the forest on the banks of its clear river, strutting in arrogance, saying to all the animals in the forest: “I am better than you all. I have a body with a strong constitution that endures hardships and carries loads without fatigue or boredom.” He would look at them all as he spoke to them, displaying his strength before them.
He said to the rabbit: “I am better than you; you are weak by nature, while I am strong.” He looked at the lizard and said to him: “You have no voice at all, while I have a thunderous voice heard by both near and far.” Then he looked at the horse, mocked him, and told him that he was pampered and could not bear what the donkey could bear. Then he departed, strutting with himself, leaving behind him the forest animals, his neighbors, who had been overcome by sadness because of his words that had descended upon them with all his arrogance and saddened them.
One day, while the donkey Kurkūsh was strutting in the forest, he met the wise turtle Fūrī. He spoke with her as he had before with the forest animals and told her that she was small in size and not strong enough to carry anything, while he could do so.
The intelligent turtle Fūrī smiled and asked him if he could swim on the surface of the water or descend to the bottom without drowning. Here the forest animals stopped their conversation between them and waited for the answer of the donkey Kurkūsh, whose face reddened with shame. But his arrogance drove him to oppose the turtle Fūrī, and he told her that he could walk on the water and swim. The turtle Fūrī asked him to do that before all the forest animals.
The donkey Kurkūsh’s arrogance reached its limit, so he decided to walk on the water. But unfortunately his body prevented him from that, and he nearly drowned as soon as he placed his foot in the water. The forest animals rushed toward him and saved him. The turtle Fūrī told him that every animal has its own abilities and the skills that God Almighty has placed in him. Some can swim, some can fly, others can crawl in narrow crevices, and this does not mean that the others are less than him in anything. Therefore we must be humble and respect our abilities and the abilities of others around us. The donkey Kurkūsh felt that he had been mistaken. He apologized to his neighbors the animals, and they accepted his apology, and they all lived in happiness.