Week 13 Story: The Monkey and His Peas

As I sat in the tree, my stomach grumbled. What was I to eat today? Would it be bananas? Maybe some mangos? Or would I be lucky enough to find something better? As a monkey, you eat whatever you can find, but as a vegetarian, it's quite difficult.

All the other predators make fun of me for only eating fruits and veggies but it's not my fault. I didn't choose to be a little chimp. If I could turn into a tiger and eat whatever animals I wanted, believe me I would. But alas, a monkey I'll always be. My stomach is growling so loud I can't hear the sound of my own thoughts.

But suddenly, I see them. Humans.

They stop to feed their horses and eat something for themselves, and I notice something quite appealing: peas. My favorite food of all time. Oh how I love peas. There's just something about the little rascals, I love popping each individual one in my mouth and savoring the amazing flavor.

My window of opportunity is small, so I act fast. While the humans are looking away, I swoop down from my tree and snatch the can of peas without a sound. Oh happy day! What luck that on the day I am most hungry, I find peas! I'm not letting anyone lay a paw on them.

As I enjoy the little morsels, I get a little too excited and let one fall from my tree and onto the jungle ground. Oh no! I'm not going to let this pea go to waste. I went through too much trouble to let any of these delicious treats get away from me.

As I shimmy down the tree to get my pea back, the humans notice me. I cant get away in time and they start chasing me with sticks.

"Shoo shoo!" they say.

I am so frightened by the sheer number and size of them that I completely forget about my peas. I drop them as I run from the men and they are crushed one by one under the mens' feet.

Oh how I wish I let that one little pea go! For if I had, I would have still been eating the dozens of other delicious peas in my grasp.

Monkey (Wikipedia)

How greedy of me to lose everything while trying to gain one little thing!


Author's Note: This story was based off of Spend a Pound to Win a Penny. I wrote it from the monkey's perspective. I wanted to make the story an internal dialogue from the monkey's head and go through the situation of him losing the peas while trying to get one back.

The Giant Crab and Other Tales From India by W.H.D Rouse