If you are a pious rooster, come along.”  The rooster was glad to get to Kerbela so cheaply, and got up behind the fox.

They walked a little more until they came upon a water channel.  A duck was splashing around in the water.  “Hi, duck,” said the fox, “we are pious pilgrims on our way to Kerbela.  If you are a pious duck, come along.”

“Oh, yes,” quacked the duck, “just wait until I have shaken the water off my feathers.”  And it shook itself and got up on the donkey behind the rooster.  So they moved along, until they came to a big rock. 

A partridge was sitting on the rock.  The fox said: “Hi, partridge, we are pious pilgrims on the way to Kerbela, and if you are a pious bird, you come along too.”  And the partridge flew down and perched behind the duck.

Slowly, they moved on.  The donkey was tired.  Night was falling.  They came to a cave in the wilderness and decided to spend the night there.

Very early in the morning the rooster loudly said:  “Ki-ki, ki-ki!” many times, as he was used to doing.  The fox had waited for this.  He jumped on the rooster and cried: “You are bursting my poor head with your awful noise! Your crowing won’t let us sleep!”

The rooster said: “But crowing is my duty, it was my father’s duty and that of all my forefathers!”

“I don’t care about your ancestors,” cried the fox, “but you won’t crow any more,” and he quickly wrung the rooster’s neck.

Then the fox grabbed the duck and said: “Why do you paddle around in the water, stirring up the mud with your feet so that we can’t find clean water to drink?”

“Why, that’s the only way…” the duck was starting to say, but the fox quickly wrung its neck.  Then he stretched out his paw to get the partridge, but the partridge said: “Fox, as a pious pilgrim you must say: ‘Thanks be to God’ before you eat.”  And while the fox said: “Thanks be to God,” the partridge flew away, and the donkey ran faster than he had ever run before.