That joke seems to be unbelievably old; I’ve heard a version with Nasreddin Hodja and a donkey (and the donkey is used almost universally when it’s told in Russ

That joke seems to be unbelievably old; I’ve heard a version with Nasreddin Hodja and a donkey (and the donkey is used almost universally when it’s told in Russian, despite donkeys not exactly being common in most of the country), but I wouldn’t bet on even that being the first iteration. (Neither do I have a good source for the authenticity of the Nasreddin version, unfortunately.)