Once upon a time, there were two friends, a monkey and a turtle. One day, they found a banana tree floating in the river and the turtle dragged it to the bank.
They divided it between them and the monkey chose the top half with leaves. The turtle smiled and took the lower half.
Both planted their halves. While the monkey’s half withered and died, the turtle’s grew into a big tree. It had a lot of bananas on it too. However, the turtle could not reach them. So, she asked for the monkey’s help and offered him half the fruits.
The monkey climbed up and ate all the bananas, not giving a single one to the turtle. The turtle was very angry and decided to take revenge. She stuck a lot of sharp sticks on the ground around the tree. When the monkey climbed down, he hurt himself badly on the sharp sticks.
He went looking for the turtle to teach her a lesson and found her under a pepper-plant. “This is the King’s fruit, I am guarding,” said the turtle.
The greedy monkey wanted to eat that too. “I’ll give you some,” said the turtle, “But I will go away and you must eat it later, so that the king may not punish me.” The monkey watched the turtle walk off and then he ate the pepper. It was hot and he burned his mouth badly.
This time, he found the turtle sitting outside a hole. He said this time he was guarding the King’s belt. “You can try it on when it comes out,” said the wily turtle. Out came a snake and nearly squeezed the monkey to death.
The turtle hid inside a coconut-shell and the tired monkey sat down on it to rest. He called the turtle. “I’m here!” replied the turtle. The monkey thought the sound came from under him and looked round. But he couldn’t see the turtle. He thought perhaps the voice was coming from some part of his own body.
“Even if he is inside me, I’ll kill him!” decided the monkey. Once more, he called and when the turtle replied, the monkey was so irritated that he began to beat his own stomach with a large stone. He injured himself so badly that he died of his wounds!
