In one city there lived two monkeys, Laptu and Japtu. They were very absent-minded. And both were great hunters of fruits.
One day the monkeys went to wander through the forest and saw a large apple tree with ripe fruits. They wanted to take home more apples. But what should we carry them in? After all, they didn’t even have a scarf with them.
Then the monkeys began to look around and saw under the bush some round object, like a ball, all strewn with long sharp needles. The monkeys were very happy and began to roll him on the ground strewn with ripe apples. They rolled it until all the fruits were on the needles. Then they climbed the tree, and having picked the best apples, they threw them down onto the sharp needles. When there were enough apples, the monkeys came down from the tree to take their spoils home. And suddenly this round object with apples on needles ran: it had four legs! Moreover, he began to mock the stupidity of the monkeys. Only now did Laptu and Japtu realize their mistake, because the strange round object turned out to be a porcupine. He was sitting near a bush with thorns, and the scattered monkeys mistook him for a large thorny fruit.
The beast quickly ran away with apples on its back. Only Laptu and Japtu saw him. At home, the porcupine fed his children with ripe fruits, and the stupid monkeys trudged home empty-handed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru