A circus owner had a few monkeys in his circus. In order to feed the monkeys, he kept grains of food in several jars. There was one jar for each monkey.
After performing their acts in the circus, the monkeys would come to their personal jars one by one and take out handfuls of food from the jar till their stomachs were full. Since each monkey had his own jar of food and could eat as much as he liked, the monkeys never quarrelled amongst themselves.
One day, the circus owner brought one more monkey for his troupe. He kept an additional jar of food for this monkey.
The new monkey was fat and greedy. He liked to eat ahead of other monkeys and took out grains of food from their jars as well.
When the other monkeys approached their jars for taking out their food, the fat monkey would grimace, chatter and baring his teeth, frighten and chase them away. The other monkeys could not eat till the fat monkey had had enough food from their jars.
Out of fear of the fat monkey, the other monkeys would quietly sit at a distance, waiting for his departure.
The owner of the circus decided to teach a lesson to the greedy monkey.
He bought one bigger jar for keeping food for the monkeys. The mouth of the jar was so narrow that a monkey could barely push his hand into it.
He kept a large guava in the big jar and kept it near the jars in which he kept the food for the other monkeys. Near the big jar he also kept a number of small bamboo sticks.
The smell of the fruit attracted the fat, greedy monkey to the big jar. He pushed his hand in the jar and closed his fingers to take out the fruit.
However, because of the narrow mouth of the jar, he could not take out his hand while grabbing the fruit. He tried again and again to pull his hand out along with the fruit but did not succeed. He could withdraw his hand, but not with the fruit in his hand.
The monkey was too greedy to leave without having the fruit. He had himself stuck his hand in the jar because of his greed.
Meanwhile the other monkeys were watching him from a distance. After waiting for a long time when they found that the fat monkey was not moving away, they cautiously advanced towards the jar.
The fat monkey bared his teeth and chatted to scare them away, but with one of his hands in the jar, he could not move and ran after them.
In the meantime, one amongst the other monkeys picked up one of the bamboo sticks kept near the big jar and began to waive it.
Monkeys have a habit of copying others’ actions. Seeing the monkey waive the stick, the other monkeys too came forward, picked up the sticks and began to waive them. Accidentally, one of the sticks fell on the back of the fat monkey. The fat monkey cried in pain, but still did not take his hand out of the jar because of his greed for the fruit.
However, the other monkeys had found out that they could easily beat the fat monkey. Soon, all of them began to beat him with their sticks.
The greedy monkey could not face thrashing by so many monkeys, and ran for his life leaving the fruit behind in the jar.
From that day onward, the circus owner kept a bamboo stick beside each jar of food.
The fat monkey had learnt a lesson. He never went near the jars where sticks were kept.
Moral:
1. Those who deprive others of their due right have to suffer punishment.
2. Greed ties the hands of the greedy person to the object of greed.
