I thought to myself, "Every soldier I knew would have shot the fucking donkey"

intrigued I had to go look it up. The actual story is just as entertaining as the parable.
Then after the story above I thought. "How is that donkey starving in a damn field.
Then it dawned on me. Knowing the guys I served with, what seems a more fitting reality is they got a good buzz on some local hooch and stole the damn donky before returning to base. Laughing like school kids the entire way. Needing a damn good excuse for acquiring a donkey, and wanting to keep it, they had to come up with a good story. " We found this poor thing starving" fits the bill nicely. That is the ONLY way I could ever see a soldier carrying a damn donkey all the way back to base. Because they're shitfaced drunk and think it's hilarious.