Just like any other trip, the old man and the boy loaded up their aging donkey and peddled vegetables to diminished crowds as everyone else was in God's house. Their earnings for the week were poor and they unloaded all of their vegetables for a very low price. After the old man bought fresh milk and bread and eggs, he found enough change left over to buy a stick of sugar cane for his grandson to chew on during the walk home.
As they headed home with the donkey plodding behind, they passed a noblewoman in a carriage. She looked at them and said aloud:
"Harumph! Look at that old man, forcing such an innocent young child to walk all the way home while their beast of burden bears no load!" And she drove off.
The old man placed his grandson on the back of the donkey, and the boy took out his piece of sugar cane and began to chew on it. At that time, the preacher rode by on his horse. He looked at them and said aloud:
"A wretched little brat is he that eats his candy and rides easily home, exercising gluttony and sloth! And all the while, his own grandfather is forced to walk on his tired old legs! For shame!!" And he rode off.
The old man joined his grandson atop the donkey's back when a group of PeTA supporters approached. Their leader looked at the two mounted on the beast and said:
"That poor old donkey deserves to be as free as you are! It should be YOU who carries the donkey, for subjecting it to hard labor and unnecessary loads!" And his zombielike cohorts all agreed in low murmurs.
The group proceeded to forcefully remove the boy and man from the animal's back, unharness it, and set it free. Once separated from the reign of human domination, the donkey had nothing to do and took to a hard life of drinking, crime and drugs. It blamed its mother for not being there when it needed her the most and died cold, lonely and friendless on the outskirts of the bad part of town when a drive-by crossbow mowed it down. Unfortunately, nobody noticed and could take the donkey to a vet.
The old man and his grandson were harnessed with their own ropes and forced to carry the fattest member of the group back to their home for partial atonement for their deed. Once the PeTA group leader saw the milk, he spilled it "because it was meant for calves, not people." He broke the eggs "because they had committed murder by allowing a batch of potential baby chickens to never come into existance." He incinerated the bread "because other animals like that poor donkey slaved in mills to grind the flour."
After the group had left, the old man and his grandson found themselves with insufficient food, no money and nothing to sell. The boy tried to sell himself to homosexual travelers but he found no takers. The old man sacrificed his small meals so that the boy would live on. He starved to death and the boy, being too young to go through such a trauma, died of grief shorty afterwards.
THE END