The Monkey and the Crocodile

It was a beautiful lake surrounded by lush green grasses, beautiful trees, mountains and
sweetest, tastiest jamun trees. There lived a monkey on one of the jamun trees located
near the lake.

The lake also had a few crocodiles. There was one crocodile that used to collect the
jamun fruits from the lake that fall from the tree.

As the crocodile visits the jamun trees every day, it became friends with Monkey.
Crocodile and monkey met every day. The monkey helped crocodile by providing more
and fresh jamun fruits from the tree. Their relationship continued and they became close
pals.
One day, the monkey asked the crocodile to give some jamun fruits to his wife and family
as the fruits were more delicious. The crocodile agreed and took a lot of jamun fruits to
his wife.
His wife was so happy and surprised that she never ate so delicious fruits, so far. She
inquired her husband, where he got those fruits. The crocodile told her, his friend, monkey
who lives in a Jamun tree gave these for him.

The wife crocodile made a plan in her mind. She asked her husband, ‘Does your friend eat these
fruits every day?’ The crocodile replied yes. She added, ‘Oh my goodness. These are the
sweetest fruits we ever ate. Imagine how delicious the monkey’s heart would be if he eat these
fruits daily! I need the heart of your friend. Can you please bring it for me?’
The crocodile was shocked to hear it from his wife. He replied, ‘But he is my close friend. I can’t
do this to him.’
The wife crocodile told him, ‘don’t worry. You bring him here. I will then take care! Or else, you
may try to push him down into the water if he doesn’t know swimming!’
After a long time, the crocodile agreed to bring monkey to his wife.
The very next day, crocodile invited monkey to join them for lunch and asked for his favorite foods.
Monkey happily agreed to be the guest and but worried that the monkey did not know how to
swim in the lake.
Crocodile on thinking about monkey’s sorrow, pleased monkey and told him, ‘Don’t worry. I will
carry you on my back and will take you back safely too!’
The monkey accepted and crocodile rode him to his home on his back on the water. As they
reached half way, the crocodile tried to push monkey down into the water. However, monkey held
the crocodile tightly and did not fall. Monkey got suspicious about crocodile’s act and asked him
to tell the truth.
Since crocodile believed him as his good friend, he told about the conversation and the fight his
wife had with him and he was taking monkey to eat his heart!
The intelligent monkey said, ‘Oh my dear friend, you should have told me this earlier. I left my
heart on one of the branches of the tree as I won’t carry it if I travel long. If you take me back, I
can give you my heart.’
Crocodile accepted and rode the monkey back to the lake. As they reached the tree where the
monkey lived, the monkey climbed quickly and escaped from the crocodile.
He shouted at crocodile, ‘I thought you as a good friend, but you cheated me. I will never come
back and never be your friend.’
The crocodile understood his mistake and returned back home empty handed, losing a good
friend indeed.
 The Eagle Who Lived Like a Hen

In a forest an eagle lived on a tree. It had built a nest wherein to lay its eggs. There the
eagle would hatch its eggs all through the day.

Under the same tree there lived a hen. The hen had also laid eggs during the same period
when the eagle had laid its eggs.

One day, while the eagle had gone for hunting, a bear climbed up the tree to eat the
eagle’s eggs. The bear had finished three of the eggs when the fourth one slipped off its
hands and fell into the hen’s nest. On returning, the eagle could not find her eggs. Feeling
terribly upset, she decided to leave the place.

The hen which lived under the tree saw the eagle’s egg by the side of her eggs. She felt
eggs pity on the eagle’s egg, and decided to hatch it too. After a few days, the hen’s
chicks hatched. The eagle’s chick hatched, too.

The hen would feed all the chicks, including the eagle’s chick, as if it were her own. Soon
the chicks began to grow.

The young chicks would listen to their mother’s sounds and try to imitate her. The eagle’s
chick also picked up the hen’s sounds. The chicks would all play together and make lots
of noise.

Within no time the hen’s chicks as well as the eagle’s chick grew up to their full size. The
eagle’s chick never realized that it was an eagle and not a hen. Considering itself a hen,
the eagle would. eat hen’s food, would walk and run like other hens and would make
sounds like hens. The eagle never learnt to fly like other eagles and lived its whole life
like a hen only.