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This is a story that happened about 700 years ago in Asia.  Nasreddin Hoca had a donkey with a voracious appetite.  He wondered if by gradually reducing the animals food every day it would not be possible to condition the animal to get along without any food at all.  This interesting experiment was continued for several weeks, but a few days after all food had been stopped, the donkey toppled over and died, to the great chagrin of Nasreddin Hoca, who sadly murmured:  “What a pity that he should have died just when he was getting accustomed to hunger.”

Encyclopedia on Humor, Joey Adams, page 262