The Donkey in the Lion's Skin
A donkey wearing a lion's skin frightens everyone, until he opens his mouth.
Tap a word to see it in Turkish · Long press to translate the whole sentence.
One day a donkey found a lion's skin lying on the ground in the forest. He pulled the skin over his back, pushed his head into the mane and looked at himself in the stream as if in a mirror. "I look exactly like a lion!" he said.
He walked toward the village. The hens that saw him flapped away, the goats bleated and hid in the barn, even the dogs tucked in their tails. The donkey walked proudly. "Everyone is afraid of me! What power!"
After a while, in a field, he met a fox. The fox was startled at first and backed away. The donkey enjoyed this so much that he wanted to roar like a lion. He puffed out his chest, opened his mouth wide and...
"Hee-haw! Hee-haw!"
The fox stopped. He tilted his head. He burst out laughing. "Your skin is a lion's, brother, but your voice is a donkey's! If you had kept your mouth shut, maybe I would have been scared too."
Hearing this, the hens came back, the goats came out of the barn and the dogs started barking. The donkey threw off the skin in shame and went back to his stable.
The old horse said to him: "It is easy to put on someone else's skin. But the moment you open your mouth, everyone knows who you are. The best thing is to be yourself."
The tale ends here. Sleep well.
The Donkey in the Lion's Skin is a children's tale from Aesop, suitable for ages 4-9 and about 2 minutes long. Read it free on Masal Merkezi, play a lullaby or nature sound in the background, tap any word to see its Turkish meaning and save it to your favorites. For similar tales browse the Aesop's Fables category.
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