The Monkey King
(originally from "What do you think, my friend?")
There was once a kingdom of monkeys in the forest. The King of the Monkeys was
very very large, and was very kind and wise. One day, the King was strolling
& he noticed mango trees along the side of a river. He also noticed a human
castle downstream. He then ordered the monkeys to remove all the mangos from
these trees, "or there would be disaster". The monkeys did not understand
the King's intention, but they did as told anyway. All the mangos were taken
off these trees except one. This one was hidden behind a nest.
One day, this mango was ripe and fell into the river. It flowed downstream where
the human King was having a bath. He noticed the mango & asked the Prime
Minister what it was. The PM told him it was a "mango", a fruit of
wonderful taste. The King then ordered that the mango be cut into small pieces
& he gave a small piece to each of his ministers. When satisfied that the
mango was not poisonous, he ate the rest of it & realized how tasty it was.
He craved for more.
The next day, the human king, with his troops, went upstream to search for more
of these fruits. There were lots of mango trees, but also lots of monkeys. The
human king doesn't want to share the mangos with the monkeys, so he ordered
all of them to be killed. A massacre started.
When the news reached the wise Monkey King, he commented, "The day has
finally arrived". The thousands of monkeys were chased all the way to the
edge of the forest. There was a deep cliff at the edge of the forest, and a
bamboo forest at the other side of the cliff. The Monkey King saw that if his
subjects could cross over to the bamboo forest, they will be saved.
With his huge body, he formed a bridge over the cliff and thousands of monkeys
trampled over him to reach the safety of the bamboo forest. He endured all the
pain. One monkey did not like the King & he saw this as an opportunity to
get even. As he was crossing over the King's body, he pierced a spear through
the King's heart. The King screamed in pain but endured the pain until all his
subjects were safely across. Then he collapsed.
The human king witnessed the whole thing. He was so touched that he ordered
the Monkey King be saved. When the Monkey King recovered his consciousness,
the human king asked him, "You are their King, why did you bother to die
for them?". The Monkey King replied, "Because I am their King".
With that, he died.
The human king was so touched that he decided to be a good king from that day
and he ordered that the monkeys in the bamboo forest be protected from harm
forever.