The Cat’s Judgement

Two cats had stolen a piece of cheese. Now they had a problem. Neither cat would agree on how to split it.

“I should get the bigger piece,” said the first cat.

“No, I should!” said the second cat.

At last they decided to ask a monkey to settle the quarrel for them.

The monkey was very happy to be the judge. He fetched a pair of scales and put one piece of cheese on each side. Then he peered at them carefully.

“Hmm, let me see,” he said. “Yes. This piece is heavier than that one.” And he took a big bite out of the heavier piece, just to make the two sides even, he said.

But now the other side was heavier. So the monkey, claiming to be a very careful judge, took a big bite out of that piece too.

“Stop, stop!” cried the two cats. They were getting worried. “Just give us our pieces. We are happy now.”

“You may be happy,” said the monkey, “but justice is not. A tricky case like this cannot be settled so quickly.”

So he went on nibbling, first one piece and then the other. The cheese grew smaller and smaller. At last the poor cats begged him not to trouble himself any more. “Please,” they said, “just give us whatever is left.”

“Not so fast, my friends,” said the monkey. “I must be fair to myself as well as to you. Whatever is left belongs to me, as payment for being your judge.”

And he popped the rest of the cheese into his mouth, bowed very solemnly, and sent the two cats home with nothing at all.

About this tale

This fable appears under the title “A Matter of Arbitration” in The Talking Beasts: A Book of Fable Wisdom, edited by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith (Project Gutenberg #13815). Their book gathers fables from many lands, and this one sits in the section of fables of Aesop.

The identifiable source used for this retelling is the Aesop section of The Talking Beasts; this page does not establish a Panchatantra source. “Arbitration” means asking someone outside a quarrel to settle it, which is exactly what the two cats do, with very bad luck.

Read the original: Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith, eds., The Talking Beasts (Project Gutenberg #13815)

Best for ages 3–5 — a quick, funny fable about sharing and about trusting the wrong judge.

A closer reading

The scales look fair, but the monkey controls what fairness means. Every correction gives him another bite. He benefits when the disagreement continues, so he has a reason not to finish the job the cats asked him to do.

The cats eventually agree to stop, yet the monkey refuses. At that point their quarrel is no longer the obstacle: the self-appointed judge will not give up control. The tale warns about a helper with a personal stake in the result, rather than showing that asking for help is always a mistake. The cheese was stolen in the first place, so returning it to its owner is another issue the cats never address.

Try this with the story

Use two paper shapes as the cheese. After each imagined bite, move the removed piece to a third pile for the monkey. Ask which pile keeps growing and why. Then discuss how a fair helper could divide something without taking it.

Questions to ask

• What does the monkey gain each time he says the pieces are unequal?
• What happens when both cats ask him to stop?
• How could a fair helper act differently?
• Who originally owned the stolen cheese?

You may also like

• Cat and Mouse in Partnership — another story about a cat who cannot be trusted with food
• The Story of the Vulture, the Cat, and the Birds — another fable about a sly cat
• The Cat, the Mouse, the Lizard, and the Owl — another animal tale about a clever trick