Why does a zebra have stripes? - A story for kids

Have you ever seen a zebra?  They look like a donkey or a small horse but they are not, because they have beautiful black and white stripes.  

An amazing thing about a zebra's stripes are that not one looks the same as another.  Every one has their own pattern.  Like our fingerprints.   Every person has a unique set of fingerprints.  

Each zebra has a unique pattern on their bodies.

                                     

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But why do they have these beautiful stripes?  Let me tell you how they got it...

A long time ago there were no zebras on earth, only donkeys.  The donkeys were kept by man and they had to work very hard.  From early in the morning till late at night.  Every day.  It did not matter if it was raining, snowing or the sun was shining, the donkeys just worked and worked.

They loved their owners and they wanted to work hard, but they also wanted some free time.  Some time to play and roll in the grass or chase one another and have some fun, but sadly they just had to work.

They got tired from all the work and started getting very unhappy.

Two of the donkeys were sick and tired of working the whole time, they were still young and they wanted time to play.  

In the next town lived a very old but wise man.  The two donkeys decided to go and visit him and ask for his advice on how they could have some free time.

One night they quietly slipped out of the barn and walked the whole night until they got to the old man's house.

The old man was kind and he wanted to help the donkeys, so he said "I think I have a plan, just wait here."

The donkeys waited and waited and just when they thought he was not coming back, they saw the old man coming around the corner with two cans full of paint.

They had no idea what the plan was, but they trusted the old man and listened while he explained.

"I have two colors of paint left of my very special paint.  Black and white.  So what I am going to do is paint you and then your owners will not be able to recognize you and you will have all the time you want to play and just graze and enjoy the lovely sunny days."

The old man thought and though and then decided he was going to paint some blocks on the donkeys.  The donkeys did not like that idea and the one said that he prefers stripes.  

The old man started painting, one stripe black, one stripe white.  When he was done the donkey looked totally different.  The other donkey also wanted to look the same, but the old man could not get the stripes exactly the same, so even though both the donkeys had stripes, they were different.

The donkeys were very excited.  They could not wait to go back home and show off their stripes to the other donkeys.

The old man said "We cannot call you donkeys any more, we need to give you a new name."  He thought and thought and the suddenly he shouted. "Zebra, we will call you zebras."

The zebras went back to their own town and the donkeys did not recognize them.  When the master came the next morning to fetch the donkeys to go and work, he did not even look at the zebras.

The zebras had a wonderful day of playing and having fun.  They were so excited that they did not have to work the whole day.  They could not keep the secret for long and they told the other donkeys the reason why they looked different.

The other donkeys could not believe it and soon most of them decided that they are also going to visit the old man, since they were also sick of working the whole time.

The old man still had paint left and he started painting some of the other donkeys.  

But is was not long before the ones that were waiting to be painted started getting restless and started pushing one another to get to the front of the line.

The old man tried to stop them from pushing one another, but they kept on pushing and kicking.

The next moment they knocked over the buckets of paint...

"Go get some more, we want to get painted", they told the old man, but the old man just shook his head and said that it was special paint and there was nothing left.

A lot of the donkeys were not painted and they had to return to the barn and start working again.

That is why today we still find zebras and donkeys on earth.  So next time you see a zebra, remember a zebra is just a painted donkey that grew tired of working...

Read some interesting facts on zebras here.