A king’s gardener, eager to join a city holiday, entrusted a tribe of monkeys to water young trees in the royal garden. Following the gardener’s vague instructions, the monkeys decided to measure root lengths to determine water needs, uprooting all the trees in the process. When the gardener returned, he found the trees dead, illustrating the consequences of misplaced trust and poor planning.
Source:
More Jataka Tales
by Ellen C. Babbit
The Century Co., New York, 1922
► Themes of the story
Moral Lessons: The narrative teaches the importance of proper planning and the consequences of entrusting responsibilities to those unqualified, highlighting the pitfalls of misplaced trust and lack of foresight.
Cunning and Deception: The gardener’s decision to delegate his duties to the monkeys, perhaps underestimating their capabilities, reflects a form of cunning that ultimately backfires, leading to unintended consequences.
Trickster: The monkeys, in their misguided attempt to follow the gardener’s instructions, embody the trickster archetype, causing chaos through their literal interpretation and actions, which leads to the destruction of the young trees.
► From the same Region or People
Once upon a time a king gave a holiday to all the people in one of his cities.
The king’s gardener thought to himself: “All my friends are having a holiday in the city. I could go into the city and enjoy myself with them if I did not have to water the trees here in this garden. I know what I will do. I will get the Monkeys to water the young trees for me.” In those days, a tribe of Monkeys lived in the king’s garden.
► Continue reading…
So the gardener went to the Chief of the Monkeys, and said: “You are lucky Monkeys to be living in the king’s garden. You have a fine place to play in. You have the best of food–nuts, fruit, and the young shoots of trees to eat. You have no work at all to do. You can play all day, every day. To-day my friends are having a holiday in the city, and I want to enjoy myself with them. Will you water the young trees so that I can go away?”
“Oh, yes!” said the Chief of the Monkeys. “We shall be glad to do that.”
“Do not forget to water the trees when the sun goes down. See they have plenty of water, but not too much,” said the gardener. Then he showed them where the watering-pots were kept, and went away.
When the sun went down the Monkeys took the watering-pots, and began to water the young trees. “See that each tree has enough water,” said the Chief of the Monkeys.
“How shall we know when each tree has enough?” they asked. The Chief of the Monkeys had no good answer, so he said: “Pull up each young tree and look at the length of its roots. Give a great deal of water to those with long roots, but only a little to those trees that have short roots.”
Then those stupid Monkeys pulled up all the young trees to see which trees had long roots and which had short roots.
When the gardener came back the next day, the poor young trees were all dead.
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