I absolutely love the story of the monkey and the crocodile. It reminds me of a story I read last semester in Mythology and Folklore about an animal offering to give another animal a ride and it ending up being a trick. In this story, the crocodile's mom requested a monkey heart to eat. Her son thought of how he could possible get it without being able to climb and the monkey not being able to swim. He eventually decides that he will trick the monkey by telling him there is lots of fresh fruit on the other side of the bank and that he would be willing to give him a ride there. Halfway through, the crocodile dives down and comes up while the monkey was on his back. He told the monkey his plan and the monkey played him right back and told him that he left his heart in the tree so he would have to take him back to get it. Foolishly, the crocodile listened and the monkey went to the top of the tree where he stayed.
The monkey moved away from that tree so he could live in peace without having to worry about the crocodile. But, of course, the crocodile found him further down the river. Where he was now, there was a rock path to a little island full of fruit that the monkey was able to hop to. The crocodile watched him make his way to the island and waited until nighttime where he planned to attack. As night came around, the crocodile slowly crept to a rock and laid perfectly still on it. The monkey immediately stopped once he got to that rock and called out to it pretending the rock normally answers. Fooled once again, the crocodile answered and the monkey acted trapped and told the crocodile to open his mouth as wide as possible so he could just jump in. The monkey knew that crocodiles close their eyes when they open their mouths wide and he jumped onto his head as soon as they closed.
The monkey made it safe to his tree yet again and the crocodile said he would leave him alone even though the monkey knows better than to believe him.
(Image by Karen Arnold.)
Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt.
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