One day the tiger felt hungry. He crawled out of the dense thickets, stretched, growled and went in search of prey. Birds, deer, even bears - they all ran away, not wanting to catch his eye. A timid doe hid behind a thorny bush. The squirrel flew headlong up the tree, darted into the hollow and, sticking out its muzzle, pricked up its ears. Her small eyes anxiously watched the tiger. And he walked calmly, stepping softly on dry leaves.
Only the monkey was not worried about anything. Having climbed a tall tree, she devoured the delicious fruits and was so carried away that she did not notice the approach of the tiger.
“Come on, get off quickly, I’ll eat you!” the tiger barked.
The monkey flinched, but quickly figured out how to get out:
- Wait, uncle tiger! Would you like to try these delicious fruits first?
You've probably never tried them! After all, I am a tree-climbing monkey, I know all the delicious fruits.
“Well,” answered the tiger, “let me try!”
- That's good! – the monkey was delighted. “I’ll give you the whole tree, climb up!”
The greedy tiger climbed the tree, drooling with impatience.
Seeing that he had escaped death, the monkey jumped to the ground and decided to get even with the tiger.
- Hey, uncle! - she shouted to him. “You must know how to choose fruits: you can only eat green, hard ones, but soft ones have worms inside, throw them on the ground!”
The tiger climbed from branch to branch, not missing a single fruit. He, obeying the monkey, put all the green, unripe fruits into his mouth and devoured them with a chomping sound, and threw the ripe ones to the ground. And the monkey was right there and gobbled them up on both cheeks.
This continued until the tiger, having eaten all the green fruits, decided to try the ripe ones. Feeling their sweetness, he jumped off the tree in anger, but the monkey was already running away as fast as he could. The tiger rushed after her and drove her into a tall tree.
“Monkey,” he growled, stopping under a tree, “you dared to deceive me, now I’ll tear you to pieces!”
The monkey was puzzled because in a hurry he climbed a tree on which hung a huge, drum-like beehive. If you climb up, the bees will bite you; if you go down, you will fall into the clutches of a tiger. But she was not at a loss here either:
- For mercy, uncle tiger! You're probably looking for a tree-climbing monkey, but I'm a drum-beating monkey.
With these words, she carefully moved closer to the hive itself and pretended to hit it with her paw. At the same time, she puffed out her cheeks and, imitating the sound of the drum, shouted: “Pum, pum!” Tiger really liked it:
- Come on, monkey, let me hit you too!
The monkey pretended that he really did not want to give up his place to the tiger, and hesitated on the tree. And the tiger was already excited:
- Come down quickly and make room! But the monkey warned the tiger:
“First you need to break a good stick so that you can hit it properly, and then pick more strong vines to tie to the trunk.”
The tiger rushed into the bushes and a little later brought everything. what the monkey said.
Then they climbed the tree together. Having reached the hive, the monkey said:
- This is the drum.
The tiger was about to hit him with a stick, but the monkey held him back:
– Don’t rush, not everything is ready yet!
Taking the vines, she tied the tiger tightly.
- Why is this? he asked.
“We definitely need to tie you up,” the monkey explained to him. “The pleasant sound of the drum fills your body with such blissful languor that you could fall out of the tree.” Now just keep pounding all day long. How nice this is! Try to rush: you need to check whether the vines are holding tightly.
The tiger made several impetuous movements, and although the vines held out, he still asked the monkey to tie him even tighter. The monkey willingly complied with this request, leaving the tiger with only one paw free, in which he had a stick clamped.
- Everything is fine now. Just don't rush, I'll give you a signal when to strike.
With these words, the monkey jumped from the tree into the bushes and ran away to a respectful distance. The tiger waited impatiently, holding his stick at the ready.
- Strike, uncle!
- Poom!
Swinging wildly, the tiger hit the hive with his stick. A cloud of bees flew out and completely covered his entire body. The tiger closed his eyes and roared desperately throughout the forest, but this did not scare the bees. The tiger tore so hard that the whole tree shook, but the vines held him tightly. Only after he managed to gnaw them through did the tiger finally free himself and, all bitten, collapsed to the ground, burning with the desire to take revenge on the monkey.
The monkey ran as fast as he could, but he was unable to compete in the race with the tiger. Feeling that her pursuer was approaching, she rushed into the stream and pretended to be looking for shellfish.
- I finally got it! – the tiger growled. “Now I will tear you to pieces for your insolence, you deceiver!”
- What are you, what are you! After all, I am a monkey collecting shellfish, and not a monkey climbing trees or a monkey beating a drum. There are so many fish in this stream! Do you, uncle tiger, like fish?
Having heard about the fish, the tiger forgot about everything, he wanted to eat it so much.
He jumped into the stream with the monkey and, in search of prey, began diligently turning over stones and digging out crab holes.
“Under this stone,” the monkey told him, “there are probably a lot of fish hiding.” I’ll lift it now, and you try to drive the fish out of there with your tail.
The tiger obeyed, and the monkey, with great difficulty, lifted the boulder. As soon as the tiger put its tail under it, the monkey pretended that the stone slipped out of its paws - and the tail was crushed. The tiger howled in pain and rushed, but the tail was held tightly. The monkey jumped around, oohing and aahing in every way:
- What a problem! Uncle, it’s no other than a water spirit planning to punish you for unauthorized hunting in his domain!
And she jumped ashore, shouting as she went:
“You’ll have to run to the source of the stream and make a sacrifice to the spirit so that it will let you go!”
Nearby there was a small dam built by peasants for irrigation.
The monkey opened the valve and let the water flow. The water in the stream began to rise quickly, a strong current beat and tossed the tiger over the stones. Realizing that the jokes were bad, the tiger rushed with such force that its tail broke off. The tiger rushed after the monkey.
She was completely exhausted. This time, death seemed inevitable. Nevertheless, she once again decided to resort to cunning and ran straight to the village. People, seeing the monkey, rushed to catch it. The monkey snuck into the garden and wanted to hide among the trees, but suddenly fell into a hole where there used to be lime. The pit turned out to be so deep that the monkey, no matter how hard he tried, could not jump to the top. Meanwhile, the villagers, having lost sight of the monkey, went home. A tiger appeared. He wandered around the garden for a long time, sensing that a monkey was somewhere nearby, but he could not figure out where. Finally, he sat down near the pit and began to lick the blood on a piece of tail. The monkey immediately came up with a cunning plan. In a frightened voice, she quietly called out to the tiger:
- Uncle! Are you still up there? Hurry up and jump here! Can't you see that the sky is about to fall to the ground and crush you?
Lifting his muzzle, the tiger looked up. In the sky, directly above him, hung a huge thundercloud, which seemed inevitable to fall. The frightened tiger rushed into the pit, but even there the fear did not leave him, and he closed his eyes tightly. Tired of his misadventures, the tiger soon fell asleep, forgetting about the monkey.
And the monkey didn’t leave him alone either. Taking the twig, she began to tickle the tiger's nostril. He sneezed and woke up.
- Monkey, don’t disturb me from sleeping! The monkey began to tickle his nostril again.
This time the tiger got angry:
“If you don’t stop right now, I’ll throw you out of the pit and the sky will fall right on your head!”
The monkey went back to his task. The angry tiger grabbed her by the paw and threw her out of the hole, and he fell asleep again.
The monkey stood on the edge of the hole and screamed shrilly, and then rushed into the forest. Hearing the scream, the villagers armed themselves with whatever they could and rushed to the pit.
They didn’t find a monkey there, but they heard the snoring of a tiger coming from below.
They filled the hole with straw and set it on fire.
The tiger slept so soundly that he woke up only when the fire began to lick his skin. He jumped out of the hole and landed straight on the peasants' spikes, which pierced his belly and sides. The tiger began to convulse. This is where his end came.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru