Juha and the Donkey a personalized book with your child as the hero

In a village of mud-brick houses and palm groves there once lived a man called Juha. Some people said he was the silliest man in the land, and some said he was the wisest, and the funny thing is that both were right. Juha had a grey beard, a small white cap, a plain brown robe and a little grey donkey, and he had a child who went everywhere with him.

One morning Juha said, "Today we take the donkey to market." So off they went down the dusty road, the child riding on the donkey and Juha walking beside it, holding the rope.

They had not gone far when two neighbours by the road tutted loudly. "Shame on that child! The young one rides in comfort while the old man walks!"

The child's face went red. "Father, you ride," said the child, and climbed down.

So Juha rode and the child walked, leading the donkey past the village well. The women filling their jars there shook their heads. "Look at that poor little one, walking in the dust while the grown man sits up high!"

Juha scratched his beard. "Come up here with me, then," he said, and the child climbed up in front of him.

So both of them rode. A farmer leaning on his hoe in a green field stared at them. "Poor donkey!" he cried. "Two riders on one little back! Have you no pity?" And the donkey's long ears drooped, as if it agreed.

So both of them climbed down and walked beside the donkey, with nobody on its back at all. At the market gate the merchants burst out laughing. "Look at those two! They have a donkey, and they walk!"

The child shrugged and held out empty hands. "Father, whatever we do, somebody laughs at us."

Juha's eyes twinkled. "There is one thing we have not tried," he said. He fetched a long wooden pole, tied the donkey's feet to it, and the two of them tried to lift the donkey and carry it into the market on their shoulders.

Well! The whole market roared with laughter. People held their sides. People wiped their eyes. The donkey, who did not like this idea at all, kicked its legs free and hopped down onto the ground by itself, perfectly unhurt, and stood there looking at them as if they were the donkeys.

Juha laughed loudest of all. "You see?" he said to his child. "When you rode, they complained. When I rode, they complained. When we both rode, and when we both walked, they complained. Pleasing everyone is a goal that no one ever reaches. So listen kindly, think for yourself, and do what you know is right."

In the market that afternoon there was a great shouting by the cook's stall. A poor man had been holding his dry bread over the cook's steaming pot, to warm it in the delicious smell, and now the cook wanted him to pay. "You ate the smell of my food!" said the cook. "Pay for it!"

"Let Juha judge," said the crowd.

Juha took out his little cloth purse and jingled it beside the cook's ear. Jingle, jingle! "There," he said. "The smell of your food is paid for with the sound of my money." And the whole market laughed again, the cook too, and the poor man went home with his warm bread.

That evening a neighbour gave a feast. Juha went in his old brown robe, dusty from the market, and the servants left him standing by the door. Nobody offered him a seat or a single date.

Juha went home with his child, put on his finest robe, a blue one embroidered with gold thread, and came back. This time the servants bowed and led him to the best seat, and the guests passed him the best dishes. Juha took the end of his embroidered sleeve and held it out over the rice and the meat. "Eat, my sleeve, eat!" he said. "It is you they invited, not me."

The guests went red to the ears, and Juha's child had to hide a giggle behind both hands.

Late that night, on their way home, the child stopped by the village well and peeped down. There, at the bottom, shone the full moon. "Father! The moon has fallen into the well!"

"Then we must save it," said Juha. He found a rope with a hook on the end and let it down into the well, while the child held the lantern and stood well back. The hook caught on a stone. Juha pulled and pulled, and suddenly the rope came free, and Juha fell flat on his back. There, high above him in the sky, was the moon.

"Hooray!" cried Juha. "We pulled it out, and it is back where it belongs!" And the child laughed and laughed until the donkey woke up and brayed.

At home they climbed the ladder to the flat roof and sat on the low wall under the stars. "Father," said the child, "today everybody had something to say. But you can't please everyone. So I will be kind, and I will do what I know is right."

Juha smiled, because that is exactly what the wisest people in the world have always known, and because his child had learned it in a single day.