The foolish crocodile and the clever monkey- Story

The crocodile and the monkey/The foolish crocodile and the clever monkey

Once upon a time, a clever monkey lived in an apple tree by a river. One day, a crocodile wandering about in search of food swam up to that tree. He requested the monkey to give him a few ripe apples as he was quite hungry. The kind monkey gave him some apples with pleasure. The crocodile ate them with heart’s content and thanked the monkey.
As the monkey didn’t look unfriendly, the crocodile often came to that tree, had a happy chat with monkey, ate some juicy ripe apples and went away. Day by day, a good friendship developed between the monkey and the crocodile.
One day, while talking, the crocodile told the monkey about his wife and that they lived on the other side of the river. So the generous monkey offered him some extra rose apples to take home for his wife.
On eating the juicy red rose apples, the crocodile’s wife felt tempted and greedy. She thought herself, if the monkey lives on such a sweet delicious dishes, his heart must be very sweet. So she posed a proposal to the crocodile to invite monkey to their house so that she can eat the monkey’s heart.
At these words, the crocodile became very sad. He tried to make her understand that it would be very cruel and difficult to get the monkey across the river. But his wife was ill-willed and determined to eat the monkey’s heart. Being compelled, he promised her to bring the monkey the next day.
When the crocodile invited the monkey to his house, he (monkey) agreed without delay. He quickly sat on the crocodile’s back.
Halfway across the river, the foolish crocodile couldn’t keep his wife’s plan hidden but told everything to the monkey.
On hearing crocodile’s words, the monkey got embarrassed but didn’t lose hope. He knew, now fear must lead him to death. So he hit upon a plan with his inborn cleverness to save his life.
The clever monkey told the crocodile that he left his heart with the apples on the tree. He asked the crocodile to make haste and turn back so that he could go and get his heart from the apple tree. The silly crocodile swam back to the tree. As they reach the bank, the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and went into the jungle leaving the poor crocodile behind.