In one city there lived two monkeys. They were very distracted. One was called Laptu and the other was called Japtu. Both were big hunters of fruits, because they read somewhere that fruits are good for health: if you eat them, you will become beautiful and dexterous.
One day they went to wander through the forest and saw a large apple tree with ripe fruits, and they wanted to take home more apples. But what should we use them for? 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 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, picked the best apples, and 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 even 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 porcupine quickly ran away with the apples on its back. Only Laptu and Japtu saw him. He fed his children with ripe fruits, and the stupid monkeys trudged home empty-handed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru