I'm sitting in my office listening to a podcast about sausages when I hear a clomping on my door.

"Yes," I say, and the clomp comes again.

I get up and open it to a donkey standing on his hind feet looking at me angrily with his front hooves crossed across his chest.

It startles me, as any animal would startle anyone opening a door to it.

But not in the way that it would have startled me if it had not been such a well-dressed donkey.

"Can I help you?" I ask.

"I heard that you've been talking about me," he says, and thumps his hoof threatening on my chest.

I know what this is about.

When I was teaching this morning, there were some students making noise, laughing in the hall. One of them had an odd laugh.

I commented to the class as I was teaching, saying, "That's an odd sound."

I wanted to say more, but couldn't quite place the sound. Continuing my lecture, I tried to come up with what the sound reminded me of.

When the laugh came again, it came to me. I paused in the middle of my proof, and added, "Sounds like a donkey."

I've found that most jokes I make in class, unless they are physical, just don't land. Very few of the students get them. It's understandable– jokes in a foreign language are difficult.

Apparently this one landed. Not a joke, really, just an observation. But it got more of a laugh than any joke I have tried in 15 years teaching here.

Not a joke at all, it seems, just an accurate observation.

"Oh, that?" I say to the donkey. "I wouldn't say I was talking about you. I was simply commenting on the fact that you were disrupting my class."

"Was I the only one? I hear that you singled me out. I hear that you referred to me as a donkey."

"You were by far the loudest. And are you not a donkey?"

"I have a name. Do you want me to refer to you as a foreigner?"

"Look. I don't know your name, and was not referring to you, I don't know you. But I don't need to go on defending a comment that you took offence at. I'm sorry if you felt singled out. I hope that you will be more considerate of students trying to listen to a lecture in the future. But I will also not refer to you as a donkey, or in any way that you find denigrating." It is a long speech, but he seems both consoled and contrite. I try to finish with an offer of a new beginning, "What is your name, by the way?"

"It's Donkey." he answers, and offers his hoof.