The playful monkey – and the lesson he learnt because of his tail

One day, a group of monkeys came upon a construction site of a temple. The workmen had all gone off to eat lunch – only their tools and half finished pieces of sculpture and wooden frames were left behind at the site.

The monkeys started playing with the things the workmen had left behind. One monkey came upon a log of wood, on which a carpenter had been working. Before going for lunch, the carpenter had cut through half of it. He had inserted a wedge, a small piece of wood, inside the half-cut log. That way the two sides of the cut log would not come together again.

The monkey found this very interesting and started to play with it. He wondered what would happen if he took the wedge out. So he started pulling at the wedge. It was stuck. He tried harder. Suddenly the wedge came out and the two sides of the log slammed together – with monkey’s tail stuck in between!

The monkey started shouting loudly. His tail really hurt and he couldn’t get free. His friends rushed to help him. But they could not free the monkey’s tail from between the log.

Finally, some of the workmen heard the shouting and came to see what the noise was all about. As soon as they saw the monkey’s tail stuck in the log, they rushed to help him. After much pulling and tugging, they finally got him free – except that now he was a monkey without a tail. His long tail was still stuck fast between the two pieces of half-cut log!

Moral of the story: If you stick your nose where it does not belong, you will lose your tail.