It was a hot afternoon. The sun was burning with all its might. The animals sought coolness near the water. On the river bank, in the shade of a large tree, a turtle and a monkey were having a leisurely conversation about times past, present and future. Suddenly they saw a banana tree floating on the water.
“What do you think,” said the monkey, “shouldn’t we get this tree and plant it?” In my opinion, it would not be stupid.
- Can you swim? - asked the turtle.
“I don’t know how, but you can.”
“Well,” said the turtle, “I’ll catch the tree.” Just let us share it. I want mine to have a top with leaves.
The monkey agreed. But when the tree was pulled ashore, she took the entire top with leaves for herself. The turtle was left with only roots. What was she supposed to do? Don't fight with a monkey! The turtle took his share, took the roots to the forest and planted them there. A little time passed, and a whole tree with bunches of ripe bananas grew from them. And the monkey, of course, grew nothing.
The monkey found out that the turtle had ripe bananas and came to her.
Turtle says:
“If you climb a tree and pick me bananas, I’ll give you half.”
“With pleasure,” answered the monkey, and at that very moment he was already at the top. There she quickly tore off the bananas and began to eat them, throwing one peel down to the turtle. The poor thing didn't know what to do. She couldn't climb up!
“This is what I’ll do,” she finally said to herself. I found some sharp sticks and stuck them in the ground around the banana tree. And then he screams:
- Hunters! The hunters are coming!
The monkey got scared and jumped down, right onto the sharp sticks. The sticks pierced her body. This is where the end came for her.
The turtle skinned the monkey, dried the meat and sold it to other monkeys who lived in the neighborhood. But it turned out that she made a mistake here: pieces of monkey fur got into the meat, and the monkeys immediately guessed that it was the meat of one of their brothers. They grabbed the turtle and took it to their leader.
The leader accused the turtle of murder and put it on trial. When the turtle's guilt was proven, the monkeys began to think about what kind of execution to inflict on her.
- Burn it! - said the monkey leader.
But the cunning turtle answered:
- Fire is not scary to me. Do you see the red marks on my back? My father threw me into the fire many times, but I didn’t care.
“Well, since fire cannot harm her,” said the monkey leader angrily, “let’s cut her into pieces.”
“This is not a punishment for me,” answered the smart turtle. - Look, my back is covered in scars. My father wanted to cut me so many times!
- What to do with her? - the stupid monkeys thought. Finally, the smartest of them came up with:
- Let's drown her in the lake!
The turtle, hearing this, was happy: after all, the water was not scary for her. But she did not show her joy in any way, pretended to be scared and began to beg the monkeys not to throw her into the lake. And I myself thought: “I cleverly deceived these stupid monkeys!” They immediately dragged her to the lake and threw her into the water. The turtle dived, but immediately stuck its head out of the water and laughed loudly.
So, thanks to her intelligence, she saved her life.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru