Page 29 - Moral Stories Vol 5

He quickly called all the animals and said “Someone did not listen to me and dropped a mango in the river. Now some people have found out about our place. We will have to leave now otherwise they will catch us too. We will use a long bamboo to get across the water.” So, they got a big bamboo and then threw across the water to form a bridge. But the bamboo was not long enough. It was just a little short. So the king monkey tied his legs to the bamboo and with his hands he held on to a bush on the land. Now the bridge was complete.
The people were coming near the island. He called all the other monkeys to come and jump over the bamboo and then jump off his body, over the island and escape. They had to do this fast as the King and his men came very near. The monkeys started jumping over the bamboo and escaping. The monkey king was getting hurt due to all the other monkeys jumping on him. After the last monkey jumped over his body, the monkey king could not hold the bamboo any more and fell into water. All the other monkeys had escaped to the land. The men and their king now were near the island. The king had seen the monkey king struggling in the water. So, the king asked his men to save the poor monkey king. The men saved the monkey king from drowning and brought him before their king. The king had seen the monkey king sacrifice his life for saving the other monkeys. He told the monkey king “O Great Monkey King, I have seen how you have tried to save your monkey family not caring about your own life. I am impressed1 to see that you were doing the duty of a king sincerely and yet sad that you are so badly hurt. What can I do for you?” The monkey king was barely able to speak as he was hurt badly.
17