Once upon a time, in a forest, there lived three friends – a monkey, a crow and an elephant. They loved one another a lot. But they also had many disagreements and could never arrive at a proper decision. One day, when they met near a huge banyan tree, the monkey said to the elephant and the crow, “When I was a baby, this banyan tree was a sapling. What was the size of this tree when you first saw it?” The elephant said, “As a baby, I remember rubbing my stomach against its tender shoots.” The crow said, “When I was a baby, I ate a few berries and dropped the seeds here. The banyan tree has grown up from those seeds.” The monkey and the elephant were surprised. Then the monkey said, “Friend, this means you are the oldest among us. We will value your opinion from now on.”
The Old and the Wise
