The Monkey and The Crab

One day, a monkey found a persimmon stone and a crab found a rice cake. The monkey, who wanted to eat the rice cake, said to the crab, “You can eat the rice cake only once! But the persimmon stone you can pant. It will then grow into a big tree and you will have many delicious persimmon to eat!”

So the crab gave the monkey the rice cake and took the persimmon stone and planted it. Every day the crab watered the stone and soon a small seedling appeared. It kept growing until it was a big tree and had a lot of fruit. The crab then began to climb the persimmon tree to get some of the fruit, but the monkey followed her and threw the crab down. Then the monkey climbed up tried to stop the monkey who hit her with a big persimmon and then ran away.

The crab broke into thousands of small pieces and tiny crabs were born from then. They all wanted punish the monkey and marched towards his home.

A bee came along and asked them where they were going. ”We are going to punish the monkey who killed our mother,” they all said. The crabs then gave the bee a dumpling and they went along together.

After a while, a chestnut rolled along and asked them where they were going. “We are going to punish the monkey who killed our mother,” they all said. They gave the chestnut a dumpling and they all went on together.

Then they met a snail in the middle of the path who asked them where they were going. “We are going to punish the monkey who killed our mother,”  they all said. They gave the snail a dumpling and they went on together.

Finally they met a grinding stone who asked them where they were going. “We are going to punish the monkey who killed our mother,” they all said. They gave the grinding stone a dumpling and went on together.

When they reach the monkey’s home he was not there, so the chestnut hid in the fire-place; the bee sat on the handle of the ladle; the snail lay in the front entrance; the grinding stone rested on top of the door; and the little crabs hid all over the house.

The monkey came in from the cold and went to the fire-place to warm himself. But the chestnut , as hot as fire, jumped into his face. The monkey rushed to the water to cool himself and the bee stung him. Then all the crabs came out to pinch him. Quickly he ran outside but slipped on the sail and fell down.

Thereupon the grinding stone fell down and crushed him.