The monkey and the crocodile

          Once upon a time, there lived a monkey, on a tree near the bank of a river. The tree had very sweet apples on its branches. The monkey enjoyed eating the tasty apples every day.  On the opposite bank of the river, there lived two crocodiles, a husband and a wife.
 

          One day, the husband crocodile swam across the river and reached the other bank. There he saw a monkey on the tree eating apples. He asked the monkey to give some apples for him. The monkey threw some apples to the crocodile. 

          “Tasty  apples!”  Said the crocodile. 

          “Yes, Indeed! I used to eat lots of these apples every day.” said the monkey.

          The crocodile thanked the monkey for the apples.

 

          Every day crocodile visited the monkey and the monkey gave him the tasty apples. Thus they became very good friends.

          One day, while eating those apples, he thought of his wife.

          The crocodile asked, “Can you please give some apples for my wife?” 

       

“Of course, I will give you the tastier apples for your wife.” replied the monkey.

Crocodile thanked him.

When he reached his house, he gave those apples to his wife. His wife said, ”Oh, what a sweet apple!” 

“One monkey gave me those apples. He used to eat those apples every day.” Said the crocodile.

 “If he eats those tasty apples every day, his heart will also be as tasty as these apples.” , his wife wondered.

“I want to taste his heart. Can you please bring me his heart?”, she asked.

The crocodile was shocked to hear this.

“He is my friend. How can I do so?”, he asked his wife.

“Please bring him here. I will do the rest.” She said.

He didn’t know what to do. He became silent. But his wife started crying and insisted him to do so.

Next morning, he started swimming to meet his friend, the monkey. 

The monkey gave him the apples to eat.  At the end of the day, the crocodile invited the monkey to his home for dinner.

“My wife will prepare delicious dinner for you.”, said the crocodile.

“But I don’t know how to swim. How will I reach your home?.”,  asked the monkey.

The crocodile agreed to carry him on his back to cross the river. Thus they started crossing the river with monkey on the crocodile’s back.

After reaching the middle of the river, the crocodile thought, ”Now it is safe to tell him where I am taking him to.” 

 

The crocodile said, “My dear friend, Do you know where I am taking you to? My wife wants to eat your tasty heart. I am sorry. What should I do? She is my dear wife. I want to make her happy.”

The monkey realized that he was in a big trouble and decided to act wisely. 

“Oh, my dear friend, your wife wants to eat my heart. You should have told me about this before we started. I am ready to give my heart to you. But I have kept my heart inside the hollow of my apple tree. Turn back, we can go to my tree and get the heart for you. “, said the monkey.

          The crocodile believed the monkey and he swam back to monkey’s shore. As soon as they reached the shore, monkey climbed up his tree and said, “You fool, I believed you and you cheated me. Now I am not a friend of you.  ”

          The crocodile swam back to his home thinking of his foolishness.

Moral :: Timely action saves life.