The Monkey King

Sham S Misri

Once on the banks of a stream there was a big mango tree on which lived many monkeys. The monkeys had selected an elderly and old monkey as their leader and called him as the king of monkeys. The monkeys jumped all over the tree eating fruit and picking up those that fell to the ground. One long branch of the mango tree spread over the stream. Whenever, a mango would fall in the stream it would remain afloat. But a danger would come if the mango floated down stream. This is what the monkey king had told them.

As usual, the monkeys would pick up any mango that fell on the ground or in the water. One night, unseen by the monkeys, a mango fell into the water and floated down stream. The next morning, one young prince of the valley went to that stream for a bath. He saw the beautiful fruit, picked it up and tasted it. The delicious fruit changed his mind. He told his men to go upstream  and find its source. Soon they found a mango tree full of ripe juicy fruit. As the men were tired, they camped there for the night and fell asleep. The monkey king and his thousands of monkeys crept into the tree and started eating the mangoes. In the morning when the prince woke up he heard the chattering and the movements of the monkeys. He called his men: “Save the fruit,”  “Save the fruit.” The prince’s men aimed their arrows on the monkeys. In fear the monkey king said to the monkeys, “Do not be afraid, I will save you.” Quickly he wound his tail  around the branch of a tree that extended towards the stream and leaped across the stream to other side. He caught a branch of a banyan tree on the other side. He thus made a bridge and told other monkeys to cross over him to the banyan tree. The monkeys thus saved themselves. The prince saw that and thought that all he was doing was saving the fruit, while that monkey king had saved the whole troop! He had learnt a great lesson that day. He went to his palace and started doing good things for his people.

Source: Modified from Buddhist tale