Reading Notes: Indian Fables and Folklore, Part B

Smoking and Drinking Monkeys by David Teniers the Younger (Wikimedia)

- The story, The Monkey Banker, is about the son of a merchant who got cheated by an innkeeper. The innkeeper was a woman, which probably had something to do with how easily she cheated the young man. In an effort to get his money back, and revenge on the thieving woman, the innkeeper's son spends a large amount of time training a monkey. He trains it to swallow a certain number of coins, then bring up whatever number of coins is named. The young man goes back to the inn, with the trained monkey, and convinces the woman that the gold coins are limitless, and trades the (now worthless) monkey in exchange for not only his own lost money, but everything the woman has stolen altogether. The provided moral of the story is "Ill-gotten gains will often be lost to another's roguery."
- I want to write an entirely different story that is based on the moral of this one. A thief who gets his or her stuff stolen always feels like a good example of just desserts. After stealing from someone, he will meet a woman that manages to get the best of him. Later, he might discover that they woman was the sister of the original victim.


Bibliography: Indian Fables and Folklore by Shovona Devi. Web Source.