The Monkey with the Cropped Tail

Once upon a time, there was a little, foolish monkey. All day long, she did nothing but jump from branch to branch.

"Be careful," the older monkeys would tell her, "you could easily fall!"

But the monkey didn’t want to listen to anyone. She climbed the tallest trees and jumped onto the thinnest branches.

One day, she climbed up a tall tree. Suddenly, the branch beneath her snapped, and the monkey fell into a thorny bush. A long, sharp thorn pierced her tail.

"Ow, ow! That hurts!" cried the monkey, and everyone saw that she was also quite a coward.

Just then, a barber was walking through the forest, carrying his razors in a bag. The monkey was overjoyed:

"Please, help me! Cut off the tip of my tail with your razor, along with this nasty thorn."

The barber took out his razor, but as soon as he brought it close to her tail, the monkey screamed:

"Ow! That’s going to hurt!" and jumped aside. The barber ended up cutting off almost the entire tail. The monkey saw this and cried:

"Look what you’ve done to my tail! Give me back my tail or give me your sharp razor!"

The barber couldn’t return the monkey’s tail, so he gave her his razor instead.

The monkey ran further into the forest, swinging the sharp razor around.

Suddenly, she saw an old woman gathering firewood. The sticks were thick and long, and the old woman couldn’t break them.

The monkey wanted to show off her sharp razor, so she approached the old woman and said:

"Look at my razor. You can split the firewood in no time with it."

The old woman was delighted and started splitting the firewood, but the razor wasn’t suited for this task—it quickly became dull.

"What have you done to my sharp razor!" the monkey got angry. "Give me back my razor or give me your firewood!"

The old woman couldn’t return the sharp razor, so she gave the monkey her firewood instead.

The monkey loaded the firewood onto her back and hopped away.

Suddenly, she saw a woman baking rice cakes in her yard. The monkey wanted some rice cakes. She approached the woman and watched. The woman’s firewood was damp and didn’t burn well.

"Take my firewood instead, it’s completely dry!" offered the monkey.

The woman was delighted, took the bundle, and threw it into the fire. The flames grew, and the rice cakes began to brown. But when the firewood burned out and the woman took out the cakes, the monkey shouted:

"What have you done to my firewood! Give it back or give me your rice cakes!"

The woman couldn’t return the firewood, so she gave the monkey her rice cakes.

The monkey grabbed them and ran off. She ran and ran until she met an old man with a large copper gong. The monkey wanted the gong, so she said:

"Old man, I have some delicious rice cakes. Give me your gong in exchange."

"Alright," agreed the old man, "we can trade." The monkey grabbed the gong, climbed to the top of a tree, and started banging on it.

"I’m the most beautiful monkey in the world!" she shouted. "I have the most wonderful gong in the world! Boom! Boom! I had a tail, but I traded it for a razor. I traded the razor for firewood, the firewood for rice cakes, and the rice cakes for this marvelous gong! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The monkey hit the gong so hard that she lost her balance and fell into a thorny bush. The other monkeys laughed loudly, and from then on, they called her Tailless Boom-Boom.

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The Monkey with the Cropped Tail

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