Jataka Tales

MP3 Audio CD. Jataka Tales

I THE GIRL MONKEY AND THE STRING OF PEARLS

One day the king went for a long walk in the woods. When he came back to his own garden, he sent for his family to come down to the lake for a swim. When they were all ready to go into the water, the queen and her ladies left their jewels in charge of the servants, and then went down into the lake. As the queen put her string of pearls away in a box, she was watched by a Girl Monkey who sat in the branches of a tree near-by. This Girl Monkey wanted to get the queen's string of pearls, so she sat still and watched, hoping that the servant in charge of the pearls would go to sleep. At first the servant kept her eyes on the jewel-box. But by and by she began to nod, and then she fell fast asleep. As soon as the Monkey saw this, quick as the wind she jumped down, opened the box, picked up the string of pearls, and quick as the wind she was up in the tree again, holding the pearls very carefully. She put the string of pearls on, and then, for fear the guards in the garden would see the pearls, the Monkey hid them in a hole in the tree. Then she sat near-by looking as if nothing had happened. By and by the servant awoke. She looked in the box, and finding that the string of pearls was not there, she cried, "A man has run off with the queen's string of pearls." Up ran the guards from every side.