Jouha Counting the Donkeys
Collected by Abdulla Al Kuwari
Edited by Patty Paine
Illustrated by Abdulla Al Kuwari
One day, Jouha went to the city and bought nine donkeys. On his trip home, he rode one of the donkeys while the rest of the donkeys followed him.
Along the way, Jouha stopped to make sure all the donkeys were still behind him. Jouha started counting: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight."
"Where is the ninth donkey?" Jouha asked himself.
He jumped off his donkey and began searching for the missing donkey. He looked behind trees, and he looked behind rocks, but he could not find the lost donkey. He returned to the group of donkeys and counted again. This time there were nine donkeys. "He must have come back while I was searching," Jouha thought to himself. He climbed back on his donkey and rode off.
Later, Jouha stopped again to count his donkeys. Again he counted only 8. He climbed down from his donkey and searched for the lost donkey, but again he couldn't find it. When he returned from searching he counted again and found that there were 9 donkeys.
Jouha saw his neighbor on the road, and asked him for his help.
Jouha said to his neighbor: "It's confusing. I find eight donkeys when I count them from the top of my donkey, but I find nine when I count them on my feet!"
The neighbor laughed and said: "You are wrong Jouha. There are actually ten donkeys!"
"How are there ten donkeys?" Jouha asked.
The neighbor replied: " I see eight donkeys behind you, and as for the ninth donkey: you are riding it!"
"Of course!" Jouha said. "Oh, my God. Silly me."
Jouha set off again with stupid smile on his face, but then he called back to his neighbor. "What about the tenth donkey?"
The neighbor replied: " The tenth donkey is on top of the ninth donkey!"
