The Elephant, the Donkey, and the Tired Horse

Once a horse was trying to pull a cart through a muddy road. The cart was very heavy, as too much had been heaped upon the cart for the horse to pull. Perhaps those that loaded the cart assumed the horse could pull it. You see, they had been gradually putting more and more weight on the horse, and he had always been able to somehow find the strength. On this occasion, however, the horse found they had finally loaded it past his ability, and he could not pull the cart, and was thus stuck in the road. Along came an elephant down the road. Maybe he would help the horse pull the cart. Absolutely not. The elephant scolded the horse for not being strong enough to pull the cart himself. Of course, it was easy for the elephant to say that since, being an elephant, he had never been in the horse's position. So the elephant continued down the road. Then a donkey came down the road. Perhaps he would help the horse pull the cart. After all, donkeys look a lot like horses and have a lot in common with them, so they ought to know how hard it is to pull an overloaded cart. Indeed the donkey did want to help, but weirdly he did not want the horse to help pull his own weight. He insisted that the horse be unhitched from the cart while he, the donkey, pulled it for him. But the load was too heavy for the donkey. He pulled and pulled but could not budge the cart an inch. The donkey was genuinely puzzled, but still refused to let the horse do some of the pulling and said, "I know. We will find some way to MAKE the elephant pull it for us!" So the donkey went off to fight with the elephant, leaving the horse still stuck in the road, wondering why neither the elephant nor the donkey would give him a little help. The elephant wished to give no help to the horse, and the donkey was determined that someone other than the horse should do the job entirely.