Once upon a time, there was a monkey who discovered a jamun tree which was near a river. He would visit the tree daily and swing from branch to branch. When he would get hungry, he would eat jamuns from the tree and satisfy his hunger. This went on for many days.
Out of the blue, an animal came swimming in the river. It had a rugged body and had sharp teeth. It also had a long tail and a flat and a long mouth. The monkey saw this animal from the tree and called out to it. The animal introduced himself as the crocodile. They spoke for a while and after that the monkey offered some jamuns to the crocodile. The crocodile loved the jamun fruit and so the monkey gave him more jamuns to take home.
The crocodile took the jamuns to his home and gave it to his wife. His wife too loved the jamuns. Since then, the crocodile would meet with the monkey daily and they became best friends. After their daily meeting, the crocodile would take jamuns to his home, so that his wife would enjoy it too. This went on for many days.
One day, the crocodile’s wife got a wicked thought. While eating the jamuns, she thought as to how delicious it would be if she ate the monkey’s heart. She then asked her husband if he could bring the heart to her. At first, he scolded her for her evil thoughts. He refused her request as the monkey was his best friend. But she persuaded him to make her happy and he had no other choice but to comply with her.
So, he went to the monkey and lied to him that his wife had invited him for a feast at their home. The monkey was delighted and sat on the back of the crocodile. As they were travelling to the crocodile’s home, the crocodile had a moral dilemma and blurted out the truth. The monkey was aghast on hearing this and immediately thought of a plan to escape. He then said to the crocodile that if he had mentioned this earlier, he would have brought his other heart which he had left behind in the tree too. The crocodile without hesitating went back swiftly to the jamun tree.
As soon as the crocodile reached the jamun tree, the monkey climbed up the tree quickly and did not come down again. He chided the crocodile for being an ungrateful friend and told him not to come in front of him ever again. The crocodile was dejected and went away, never to return again. This ended the beautiful friendship between the crocodile and the monkey.
Moral - Faith is the basis of friendship. A good friend should never be ungrateful.