The Apple and the Donkey

On a warm summer's day, a donkey was walking through the forest looking for food when she happened upon an apple tree where a red apple lay on the ground. As the donkey lowered her head to pick up the juicy fruit, the apple suddenly started screaming. The donkey jumped back, startled by the apple.

"What do you think you're doing?" questioned the apple.

The donkey stood there shocked.

"I was taking a nap on the ground, enjoying the sunshine when I was awoken to see your great gob coming at me. I'm sure you weren't going to eat me, were you?"

The donkey sheepishly replied in the affirmative.

"But why?' asked the apple, "why would you want to kill a poor innocent apple? I've got at least 3 more days to live."

The donkey explained that she was hungry. She had been forced away from her home meadow by builders who were constructing a monstrous factory, and now she was scavenging for food.

"Well that doesn't give you the right to go around harming innocent apples. I'm sorry your meadow fell prey to industrialization, but that's not my fault. You need to realize that apples are creatures too. With feelings and emotions. We have the exact same right to live as you do."

The donkey had never encountered a philosophical apple before. She told the apple that in future she would wait until the apple had died a natural death before eating one.

"Seems fair" said the apple.

And so it was that the donkey sat down in the cool shade on that Thursday afternoon and waited for the apple to die.