Monkey Learns His Lesson
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Monkey Learns His Lesson
October 19, 2023
Episode 244
Folktale from Brazil
Do you know what the expression to learn your lesson means? Let me try it in a sentence for you. Yesterday, I went out without my umbrella and it poured with rain. I have learned my lesson, I will never leave home again without an umbrella. Have you ever had something unpleasant happen to you where you learned a lesson bout not doing something again?
Hello everyone. I’m Kathleen Pelley. Welcome to Journey with Story. I bet you know now that this saying means, you have learned not to do something because in the past it caused you a problem. Well todays story from Brazil is about a rather naughty monkey who learns a lesson after he plays just one too many tricks on the other animals.
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Let’s take a journey with Monkey Learns His Lesson.
In long ago times, Monkey was a great trickster. He loved playing all kinds of tricks on his fellow animals.
He pulled Rabbit’s ears.
He yanked Cat’s tail.
He pinched Parrot’s beak.
And ever time he played his silly trick, he would hoot and holler and screech with laughter until his belly hurt.
All the animals were tired of being laughed at and so fed up with Monkey’s silly nonsense that they determined to teach him a lesson.
One day while Monkey was taking a nap, several animals rolled a huge stone onto his tail. The pain woke up Monkey. He began to yank and pull and tug to try to free his tail, until finally he gave such a hard jerk that his tail broke off.
Immediately Cat grabbed the tail and scurried off. “Stop! Stop!” cried Monkey, chasing after Cat. “Please give me back my tail. You know I can’t climb trees without it. Please, I will do anything at all for you if you just give it back to me.”
Cat thought about it for a long while, making Monkey more and more nervous at the thought of a tailless life and not being able to climb trees.
Finally Cat replied, “Very well, I will give you back your tail if you get me some milk from Cow.”
So off Monkey went to Cow and asked, “Cow, please give me some milk so I can give it to Cat, so she will give me back my tail.”
Cow thought about it for a long while, making Monkey more and more nervous at the thought of a tailless life and not being able to climb trees.
Finally Cow replied, Very well, I will give you some milk if you get me some grass from the farmer.”
So off Monkey went to the farmer and asked, “Farmer please give me some grass, so I can give it to Cow, so she’ll give me some milk, so I can give it to Cat, so she’ll give me back my tail.”
The farmer thought about it for a long while, making Monkey more and more nervous at the thought of a tailless life and not being able to climb trees.
Finally, the farmer replied, “Very well then, I will give you some grass, if you will get me some rain from the cloud.”
So Monkey went to the cloud and asked, “Cloud, please give me some rain, so I can give it to the farmer, so he’ll give me some grass so I can give it to Cow, so whe’ll give me some milk, so I can give it to cat, so she’ll give me my tail back.
The cloud thought about it for a long while, making Monkey more and more nervous at the thought of a tailless life and not being able to climb trees.
Finally the cloud replied, “I’ll give it to you if you get me some water from the river.”
So Monkey went to the river and asked, “River, please give me some water, so I can give it to the cloud, so he’ll give me some rain, so I can give it to the farmer, so he’ll give me some grass so I can give it to Cow, so whe’ll give me some milk, so I can give it to cat, so she’ll give me my tail back.
The river thought about it for a long while, making Monkey more and more nervous at the thought of a tailless life and not being able to climb trees, and then finally he repied, “Help yourself – I have plenty of water to spare.”
Monkey thanked the river over and over again. The he brought some water to the cloud and the cloud gave him rain. He brought the rain to the farmer, who gave him grass. He brought grass to Cow, who gave him milk/. And he brought milk to Cat, who gave him his tail back.
Monkey was overjoyed. And he had learned his lesson. From that day forward, he no longer played tricks on the other animals and even to this day, you can still hear him hooting and hollering in the jungle. Monkey’s laughing because he is so happy to have his tail back.
And what do you think this story’s souvenir is? Yes, if we insist on playing tricks on others or doing other naughty deeds, then one day, something might happen which will teach us a lesson we won’t forget. And maybe you might like to try writing your own story about someone who learns a lesson when something bad happens to him or her? That might be fun for you to try this with a friend and share with each other.
Cheerio then – join me next time for Journey with Story.
