Once upon a time, there were a group of monkeys living in an orchard on one side of a river. The orchard had a huge mango tree and it was always laden with juicy golden mangoes. The group of monkeys had a king who was big, strong and most of all, very wise. The monkeys trusted him always and he never failed them in his duties as a king.
The monkey king warned his people to keep an eye on the mango tree and collect any mangoes that fall into the river. He told this because by chance, even if one mango were to fall into the river and flow downstream, it would reach the hands of humans and they would later come here in search of more. This of course meant that the monkeys would most likely be killed and so the monkeys took turns watching the tree for any falling mangoes. However, during an early morning one day, the monkey on guard was asleep as a ripe mango fell into the river. The mango floated downstream and reached the hands of a royal washerman who was washing clothes in the river.
The royal washerman then took the mango to the king and he was highly impressed with it. After eating it, the king fell even more in love with it and wanted to know where it came from. The washerman told him how he found it and soon the king set out with a few soldiers on his boat and went upstream. As they were going upstream, the monkeys in the orchard saw the humans coming and they alerted the king about it. The king immediately ordered all the monkeys to cross across to the other side of the river. The monkeys then went to the other side with the help of vines hanging from above. At last, after ensuring all the monkeys had crossed over to the other side, the monkey king jumped onto the vine and was crossing the river midway, when it snapped. He fell into the river below and a soldier from the king’s boat captured him from the water.
But what followed was something totally different. The king heaped praises on the monkey king for saving his people first. The king also said that he would not take any mangoes from the orchard as it belonged to the monkey’s kingdom. The monkey king was happy to hear that and was also glad to see that he had no evil intentions. The happy monkey king gave him lots of juicy mangoes as a token of appreciation and also said that he would send a basket of mangoes every year.
Moral - One must always fulfil their duties responsibly. Along with that, one should also always be kind to one another.