Donkey lift your tail

Table be laid, clubs to the ready and donkey lift your tail

Once upon a time, there was a tailor who lived with his three sons. One day, when his sons were old enough, they set off around the world to learn a trade. The eldest wanted to become a cabinetmaker, the second born, a miller, and the youngest, a carpenter. After three years, the eldest son had finished his apprenticeship and was given a wooden table by his master. “When you say “table be laid”, his master told him, “a feast will appear on the table.”
On his way home, he stopped to spend the night at an inn. “I’m afraid I haven’t any food for you to eat,” said the innkeeper. “That doesn’t matter,” the boy replied and called out “table be laid”. A veritable feast appeared.
That night, the innkeeper was green with envy and secretly swopped his magic table. When the boy wanted to show his father what the table could do, he called “table be laid!”, but nothing happened.
Around the same time, his brother finished his training and headed home with the magic donkey his master had given him. “When you say “donkey, lift your tail”,” his master had told him, “the donkey will lift its tail and shower you with golden coins.” On his way home, son number two stopped at the inn and the innkeeper discovered how he came by his golden coins. That night, the innkeeper swopped the donkey for another.
The tailor was worried about his sons. One swore his table could magic up a feast and the other thought he had a magic donkey; but when they tried, nothing happened.
Disappointed with what was going on, the tailor wrote to his youngest son who told his master what had happened. “I think that innkeeper has been stealing from your brothers and I know just what to give you.” He gave the youngest son a bag with a club in it. “If you say “clubs to the ready”,” he told his apprentice, “the club will jump out of the bag and attack anyone who is trying to harm you.” So the boy headed him and stopped at the same inn his brothers had been to. Do you think the innkeeper learnt his lesson?

The magic donkey was brought to the Fairytale Forest in 1956 and has been producing golden coins ever since. The inn was built just around the corner in 1999.