The King and
the Monkey
Once upon a time there was a king named
Chandra ruling a small state. His children were fond of playing with
monkeys. So the king ordered a number of monkeys to be brought to the palace
and asked his servants to feed them well and look after their needs. The
leader of the monkeys was an old scholar well versed in statecraft,
specially the works of Shukracharya, Brihaspati and Chanakya. The old monkey
trained the younger ones also in statecraft.
The king had a stable of goats that his
young sons used to ride. One of the goats was fond of food and would daily
sneak into the kitchen at any time of the day and make a clean sweep of
whatever was available in the kitchen. If the cook chanced to see him
stealing food, he would throw at it whatever was handy, a stick or a brass
pot.
The monkey leader saw this drama between
the cook and the wily goat and thought: “I am sure this tussle between the
cook and the goat will lead to the ruin of my tribe. This goat has become a
slave to food. The cook will throw at it whatever is nearby. It may be a
stick or if it is not readily available he may use an ember from the hearth
to throw at the goat. This will set ablaze the goat’s fur-covered body
making him run into the stable that would soon catch fire and burn the
horses. The great veterinarian Salihotra has said the fat of monkeys is the
best medicine for burns. That will be the end of monkeys.”
The monkey leader then summoned all the
younger ones and told them that the feud between the cook and the goat would
certainly do harm to them. In their own interest they should leave the
palace as early as possible. He quoted the scholars saying:
“He who
wants to live in peace
Must leave a house of daily strife.
Conflict breaks up kingdoms
Like bad words separate friends”
The younger ones, however, refused to
listen to the advice of the old monkey. They told the leader, “Sir, you have
become old and senile. We are not going to leave this palace where we have
the best food available. What do we get there to eat in the jungles? We
cannot eat the indifferent food in the forest.”
Extremely unhappy at their response, the
old monkey said, “You have no idea of the price you will pay for the
comforts of the palace. They won’t last long. I cannot see the end of our
tribe. I am leaving. He who spares himself the spectacle of a friend in
distress, of his house occupied by an enemy or of the division of his
country, is the happiest.”
The old monkey left all of them with a
heavy heart.
Some days later, the wily goat entered
the royal kitchen and the cook, failing to see anything handy to punish it,
took out a burning piece of wood from the hearth and hurled it at the goat.
His fur afire, he ran in panic into the stable where his burning body set
ablaze the hay stacked there. Several horses perished in the fire. The king
consulted expert veterinarians who advised him to use monkey fat as unguent
for horses suffering from burns.
The king ordered all monkeys to be killed
and their fat used to heal the burns of the horses. The old monkey was
distressed by the death of her progeny and began planning as to how he could
take revenge on the king for killing all monkeys. Wandering restlessly in
the forest, the old monkey saw a lake full of lotuses. On deeper inspection
of the lake, the senior monkey found footprints of animals and human beings
entering the lake but not footprints leaving the lake.
The monkey at once realised that there
must be some wicked crocodile in the lake and that it was better to drink
water with the tube of a lotus. As he began drinking water, a monster
emerged from the lake wearing a pearl necklace. The monster addressed the
monkey and said, “You seem to be an intelligent chap. You drank water
without entering the lake. I am impressed by the presence of your mind. Ask
anything you want.”
The monkey asked, “Sir, how many lives
can you take in one go?”
The monster said, “I can swallow tens,
hundreds and thousands at one time. All this I can do only when they enter
the lake. Outside the water, even a jackal can challenge me.”
The monkey said, “I have to settle scores
with a king. If you can lend me the pearl necklace on your body, I will
somehow persuade the king and all his men to enter the lake for hidden
wealth. Then you can kill all of them.”
Trusting the monkey, the monster gave him
the pearl necklace. The monkey reached the kingdom of Chandra. People saw
the dazzling necklace and asked him how he got it. The monkey told them
about the lake. When the word reached the king, he sent for the monkey and
asked him how he got the necklace.
On the monkey telling him everything
about the lake, the king, led by the monkey, and accompanied by his family,
ministers and followers, reached the lake. The monkey told the king that it
was better that all his men entered the lake at the same time at dawn. But
the monkey told the king, “My lord, you will not go with them. I will take
you separately to a spot where you can get a large store of pearl
necklaces.”
According to the plan, all the king’s men
entered the lake at the same time and were killed by the monster. When
nobody came out of the water for a long time, the king became suspicious and
asked the monkey about the delay in his men coming out of the lake. The
monkey immediately sprang to the top of a tree and told the king:
“O king, the monster inside the lake has
killed all your people. You have killed my people. This is my reply to that
treachery.”
Moral:
He who is overwhelmed by greed and doesn’t weigh its consequences, will
become a victim of deceit.
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