The Monkeying Business
“Everyone come here. Do you wish to listen to a story?” asked Tau.
Tau was the oldest, and the most respected monkey of the area. He used to entertain as well as train the young monkeys. All the youngsters liked Tau and followed his advices too.
Chimpu, Harya, Moni, Soni and a few more in the gang who were playing on the branch of the huge banyan tree, gathered. They sat like good students.
“Do you know why humans always make fun of us?” enquired the wiseman.
“No Tau, but I see they make faces when they look at me,” said the youngest Harya.
“For a peanut they make us dance, and jump,” complained Soni.
“There you are! They know that we have been silly, and till day we still continue to remain the same,” replied Tau.
“So, is there some way, we can prove, we are better and have improved too?” asked a young Chimpu.
“There are many ways, first you need to sharpen your communication skills, stop behaving silly and jumping for a few peanuts,” continued Tau. “Are you all ready?”
“Yes” came the answer in unison.
“What story are you sharing today?” reminded Soni.
“Many years ago, a cap-seller who was passing by this village was dead tired, and he decided to rest under this tree, keeping his bag of caps alongside. As soon as he slept, Manky sneaked one cap out of his bag, and sat giggling on top of the branch. Others followed the suit, and the bag was empty in no time. The cap-seller woke up, and to his astonishment his bag was empty. As soon as he heard the giggling sound, he was shocked to see monkeys wearing his cap. An idea stuck him, he threw the cap which was on his head on the ground and all our champions followed this act.” Tau seemed ashamed and angry too.
He vented his anger on the youngsters in front of him and said, “Do you now understand why we are mocked always? This act has brought disgrace to our entire community. Copying is still called as monkeying. I happened to witness this shameful episode.”
“What other option did we have then?” asked Moni scratching his head.
“We could have held back the cap rather than throwing it, Moni,” answered Tau.
****
Few months later, a young cap seller, again came with a bag of caps. He decided to rest under the same tree. It seemed his father had shared his experience.
As soon as he slept, the monkeys came down and took the caps away. He woke up and was not surprised to see his bag empty.
He stood up, took the cap on his head and threw it on the ground and looked up in expectations.
Immediately, Harya came down, picking up the solo cap, he shouted, “Thank you dear, just wanted to say, we too have a father.”
***
Author’s note – Same solution to older problems does not work effectively.
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