The Girl Monkey And The String of Pearls [More Jataka Tales]
ONE day the king went for a long walk in the woods. When he came back to his own garden, he sent for his family to come down to the lake for a swim.
When they were all
ready to go into the water, the queen and her ladies left their jewels in charge
of the servants, and then went down into the lake.
As the queen put
her string of pearls away in a box, she was watched by a Girl Monkey who sat in
the branches of a tree near-by. This Girl Monkey wanted to get the queen's
string of pearls, so she sat still and watched, hoping that the servant in
charge of the pearls would go to sleep.
At first the
servant kept her eyes on the jewel-box. But by and by she began to nod, and
then she fell fast asleep.
As soon as the
Monkey saw this, quick as the wind she jumped down, opened the box, picked up
the string of pearls, and quick as the wind she was up in the tree again,
holding the pearls very carefully. She put the string of pearls on, and then,
for fear the guards in the garden would see the pearls, the Monkey hid them in
a hole in the tree. Then she sat near-by looking as if nothing had happened.
By and by the
servant awoke. She looked in the box, and finding that the string of pearls was
not there, she cried, "A man has run off with the queen's string of
pearls."
Up ran the guards
from every side.
The servant said:
"I sat right here beside the box where the queen put her string of pearls.
I did not move from the place. But the day is hot, and I was tired. I must have
fallen asleep. The pearls were gone when I awoke."
The guards told the
king that the pearls were gone.
"Find the man
who stole the pearls," said the king. Away went the guards looking high
and low for the thief.
After the king had
gone, the chief guard said to himself:
"There is
something strange here. These pearls," thought he, "were lost in the
garden. There was a strong guard at the gates, so that no one from the outside
could get into the garden. On the other hand, there are hundreds of Monkeys
here in the garden. Perhaps one of the Girl Monkeys took the string of
pearls."
Then the chief
guard thought of a trick that would tell whether a Girl Monkey had taken the
pearls. So he bought a number of strings of bright-colored glass beads.
After dark that
night the guards hung the strings of glass beads here and there on the low
bushes in the garden. When the Monkeys saw the strings of bright-colored beads
the next morning, each Monkey ran for a string.
But the Girl Monkey
who had taken the queen's string of pearls did not come down. She sat near the
hole where she had hidden the pearls.
The other Monkeys
were greatly pleased with their strings of beads. They chattered to one another
about them. "It is too bad you did not get one," they said to her as
she sat quietly, saying nothing. At last she could stand it no longer. She put
on the queen's string of pearls and came down, saying proudly: "You have
only strings of glass beads. See my string of pearls!"
Then the chief of
the guards, who had been hiding near-by, caught the Girl Monkey. He took her at
once to the king.
"It was this
Girl Monkey, your Majesty, who took the pearls."
The king was glad
enough to get the pearls, but he asked the chief guard how he had found out who
took them.
The chief guard
told the king that he knew no one could have come into the garden and so he
thought they must have been taken by one of the Monkeys in the garden. Then he
told the king about the trick he had played with the beads.
"You are the
right man in the right place," said the king, and he thanked the chief of
the guards over and over again.
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