85. THE MONKEYS AND THE RED BERRIES
Long, long ago, there lived a troop of monkeys in a hilly region. When winter fell, the monkeys began to shiver with cold. They had no place to protect themselves. One of the monkeys suggested that they should go to the nearby village and take shelter in the houses of human beings till the winter lasted. His suggestion was accepted by all the monkeys. All of them shifted from the hilly region to an adjoining village.
But, next morning, when the villagers saw a big troop of monkeys, all of a sudden, jumping from branches to branches and on their rooftops, they greeted them by pelting stones and showing sticks.
84. THE MONKEY AND THE DRUM
Once upon a time, there was a little monkey who lived in the forest. One day, the little monkey was playing on a tree and swinging from one branch to the other. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his tail. He saw that a sharp thorn had pricked his tail. It was giving him a lot of pain. The monkey could not remove the thorn himself so he decided to go to the city. On his way, he met a man who was carrying a knife. The monkey requested the man to remove the painful thorn from his tail. The man agreed but while he was removing the thorn with his knife, he accidentally cut off the monkey’s tail. The monkey was upset and annoyed. He said to the man, “You cut off my tail! Now you will have to give me your knife. I will bite you if you don’t.” The man readily agreed to give the knife to the monkey and went away. The monkey was so happy on getting the knife that he started singing, “I lost my tail but I got a knife. Dum, dum, dum.”
83. THE MONKEY AND THE CROCODILE
Long, long ago, there lived a huge crocodile in the river Ganges. The river flowed through a dense jungle. On both sides of the river there stood tall jamun and other fruit trees. In one such tree there lived a big monkey by the name of Raktamukha. He ate fruits from the tree and passed his days happily jumping from one tree to another. Sometimes, he climbed down the tree; took a bath in the river and rested for a while on its bank.
One day, the crocodile came out of the river and sat under the big jamun tree in which the monkey lived. The monkey who was sitting high on a branch saw the crocodile taking rest under the tree. He became very eager to talk to the crocodile and cultivate a friendship with him.
82. THE MERCHANT’S SON
In a certain town, there lived a merchant whose name was Sagardatta. He had one son. One day the young man bought a book that was being sold for a hundred rupees. Inside the book, the only thing written was a single verse. It went like this: ‘You always get what’s coming to you.’
When the merchant saw his son’s book, he asked him, ‘How much did you pay for this book?’
