The Old Man and the Ass is one of Jean de La Fontaine's most famous fables. It tells the story of an old man who finds a donkey and decides to ride it home. However, the donkey is not cooperative and the old man has to use all of his strength to get it to move. Eventually, the donkey gets tired and lies down in the road. The old man tries to get it up, but the donkey refuses to budge. The old man is about to give up when he sees a group of children laughing at him. He realizes that he has been foolish to try to ride the donkey and that he should have just walked home. The fable teaches the moral lesson that it is important to be realistic about one's abilities and not to try to do things that one is not capable of.