In a very small town, there lived a man named Theo who was very hard working and known well for his honest salt trading business. Theo took in a horse whom he named Butter that he had intended to be his work horse. They worked well together for several months until Butter started to become very lazy and would try his best to avoid work.
Butter's job was to help Theo carry the sacks of salt from his home town to the neighboring towns for sale. It was quite often that Butter would have to cross a bridge over the river to make it to the next town.
One day, Theo loaded Butter's pouches with salt and sent him on his way across the bridge for a delivery. While the horse started trotting on his path, Theo began to prepare himself for the journey. Butter groaned at his situation when suddenly he slipped up on the bridge and fell into the river. As he climbed out on the other bank, the salt began to dissolve in the water, making the bags noticeably lighter. This gave Butter a mischievous idea.
By the time the trader had caught up to his horse, he realized he had only half of what he loaded was there so he sold what he could and felt it must have been a miscalculation on his part.
The next day, he loaded Butter and sent him ahead once more as he packed his food for the journey. As the horse came upon the bridge, he leapt into the river, again happy that his burden was lightened by the dissolved salt. Again, Theo only had even less salt to sale than the last time. This went on for days, each time, the salt being less and less.
Theo decided to follow Butter to see what could be happening to his salt. As they reached the bridge, Theo watched his horse leap into the river and his salt dissolving in the water. Theo decided to teach his horse a lesson. The next day, instead of salt, he filled the sacks with cotton and sent Butter on his way.
Like before, the horse leapt into the river in hopes to dissolve the salt and lighten his load. The cotton absorbed the water, making the load much heavier than before. The horse struggled, hoping the more he dipped, that the load would dissolve. He finally gave up and sat on the bank, panting in exhaustion.
Theo caught up to the horse and said to him "I take much pride in my work horse. It is not nice to play tricks on others just to avoid your work. I do not make excuses to avoid work."
The horse understood and from then on, took much pride in his deliveries and never again tried to fool his working partner.
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