Once there was a monkey, who did not move from his spot where he was sitting in his tree.
He was not a bad monkey; he was just not a monkey that moved around a lot.
One day the monkey was sitting there and watching everyone playing around him, but he just laughed at them and watched them play.
One of the monkeys came to him and asked him to play with them yet he said, “I am happy here in my tree, and enjoy watching you.”
The other monkey sat with him for a while then he went back to his friends and they all played together.
One of the monkeys said we must get this monkey to start playing with us as it cannot be good for him just sitting there all the time
They decided that they would not share their food with him anymore and see if he will start moving and playing with them.
This did not work, because when the little monkeys mother saw that he was not eating she took him some food. She felt sorry for him as it was her child and he was getting very thin from just sitting in the tree.
The other monkeys told her, that the reason they did not want to feed him anymore is because they wanted him to move and play with them. The mother thought about this and said, “We have to make a plan!”
The plan must be so good that he does not die from hunger because that will not be good.
The old owl was listening to what they were saying and said, all you have to do is cut off the branch of the tree where he is sitting and then he will start playing with all of them.
What a good idea.
The monkey’s mother went to the woodpecker and asked him if he would not just peck the branch off where the monkey was sitting. The woodpecker agreed and that night he did just that, the monkey had to move as the branch fell on the ground.
Once the monkey moved he could not find a branch like that one again and realised that he must rather play with the other monkeys.
Maybe we get into a rut and forget that there are better things to do than just stay in the same place and not try new things. This taught the monkey a very good lesson. Sometimes people do the same, they do not want to do new things just because they are to use to what they are doing.
Here are a few questions for you.
1. Who helped get the branch down?
2. Who thought of the idea?
3. Was it a bad monkey?
4. What is the lesson we learnt from this story?