Pawaskar. Naughty Monkey

This is another original story by Prof. Smita Pawaskar. For more from Prof. Pawaskar, see this story: The Absentminded Mum. This story is likewise translated from the Marathi, and I will share the Marathi text here later.

The way the animals cooperate in this story might remind you of the folktale type labeled ATU 210 Rooster, Hen, Duck, Pin, and Needle or of the animals allied in ATU 130 Bremen Town Musicians. This time, though, they are all barnyard animals: dog, cat, sheep, cow, and horse... plus the monkey!

NAUGHTY MONKEY

by Smita Pawaskar

(translated from the Marathi by Suniti Namjoshi)

In a small farmyard the cat, the dog, the sheep, the horse and the cow were all good friends and lived happily together. But one day a young monkey joined them. He couldn’t resist playing monkey tricks on them and teasing them.

(macaque in Andhra Pradesh, India)

For instance the dog always kept his bone in a particular place, but the monkey would hide it in different places. Or sometimes he’d overturn the cat’s milk, or jump on the sheep’s back and pull out her wool. As for the horse and the cow, he was always getting between their feet and tickling them and pulling their tails. 

He kept thinking of new ways to annoy them every day until their lives were made completely miserable.

The farmyard animals tried asking him once, “Now then, little monkey, why do you keep playing these tricks on us?” 

But the monkey just replied, “Because I think it’s great fun.” 

The animals were at their wits’ end. When the monkey had gone away somewhere to eat fruit, they got together and decided to teach him a lesson.

As soon as he got back, the dog snarled at the little monkey and chased him up a tree. 

The cat was waiting for him. She showed her claws. 

This frightened the monkey so much that he leaped off the tree and fell next to the sheep. 

The sheep butted him so hard that he flew into the air and landed between the cow’s feet, and there the cow's legs held him fast.

The monkey pleaded with them, “Please, please, please let me go. I promise I’ll never play tricks on you again.”

And so the cow let him go. 

As for the horse he rose on his hind legs and trumpeted so loudly that the naughty monkey almost fainted. 

He asked each of the animals to forgive him, and it was only then that things began to calm down. The farmyard animals made it clear to the monkey that he would have to live peacefully with them or else they would drive him out. And after that the naughty monkey became a good little monkey and lived happily with the other animals.