A Wise Old Monkey
A king used to maintain a group of monkeys for providing
entertainment for his sons. The monkeys were very nicely fed with
sumptuous delicacies everyday. The leader of the monkeys was
well-versed in the scriptures of like wise personalities and he
used to teach the other monkeys these scriptures.There was also a
pack of sheep in the king's palace and the little princes used to
ride them for fun. One of those sheep was very fond of eating
anything from the palace kitchen. The cooks in the kitchen had to
beat the sheep quite often to prevent it from causing
mischief.
The monkey leader thought that this kind of behaviour every now and
then may result in something disastrous for the monkeys in the long
run. "The sheep are extremely gluttonous and the cooks, on the
other hand, are very adept in beating the sheep with whatever they
find at hand. In case the cooks at any time start hitting the sheep
with a burning stick from the fire, then the furry body of the
sheep would surely start burning.When such a burning sheep starts
running around in frenzy and by chance enters into the nearby horse
stable, then the hay inside will catch on fire and the entire
stable along with its horses will be ablaze in no time. One ancient
animal husbandry book prescribes that burns on horse flesh can be
healed by animal skin obtained from monkeys. Accordingly, the king
will have the monkeys killed."
Apprehending thus, the wise old monkey leader called on all the
monkeys confidentially and told them, "In a place like this where
the sheep and the cooks are in constant confrontation, we, the
monkeys, are sure to meet with our destruction. So, let us take
refuge in a forest somewhere before we are destroyed en
masse."
But the arrogant young monkeys did not have anyrespect for the wise
old monkey's advice. They simply ridiculed the old monkey, saying,
"You must be under some sort of delusion due to your advancing age,
and so you are talking like a lunatic. We are not interested in
leaving the palace for forest life only to live on distasteful
fruits; here we are being fed with nectarean varieties of
foodstuffs by the princes themselves."
Upon hearing the puffed-up monkeys retorting like this, the old
monkey told them with tearful eyes, "O fools, you do not know the
results of such pleasure. Don't you know this will be ultimately
destructive for you! So let me leave for the forest alone - I don't
want to see your deaths."
Saying thus, the monkey-leader started for the forest, leaving
behind all the other monkeys.Following this, one day that greedy
sheep entered into the kitchen.The cook struck the beast with
burning firewood. Immediately the sheep started crying and ran
straight into the nearby horse stable. As the sheep, with the fire
all over its body, started rolling desperately over the hay-stack
kept in the stable, the entire pavilion caught fire and many of the
horses were burnt to death while the others just ran amok,
resulting in a great consternation all over.
The king immediately summoned his veterinary surgeon for the
treatment of the horses. The surgeon quoted Salihotra's
prescription that monkey's tallow was essential for the quick
healing of the burns suffered by the horses. So the king ordered
that treatment should immediately be undertaken to save the horses,
and accordingly he also issued his instructions to kill the monkeys
to collect their tallow. The monkey leader got the news and was
very much depressed.
Those who contemplate that the ageing advisor might be under
delusion and may not know more than a common person knows, and
instead of following him follow evil companions, will certainly
meet with a disastrous end.