How the Monkey Saved His Troop

On the bank of a great river there grew a mango tree. Some of its branches hung over the water, so that their fruit dropped into the river, and the rest of the fruit fell on the ground below.

Every night a troop of Monkeys came to the tree. First they ate the fruit lying on the ground, and then they climbed up into the branches for more mangoes, which were like big, juicy peaches.

One day the king of that country was standing on the bank of the same river, many miles downstream, watching the fishermen at work. When they hauled in their nets, they found a strange fruit tangled among the fish. They carried it to the king.

“What is this?” he asked.

“We don’t know, Your Majesty,” they said.

“Send for the foresters,” said the king. “They will know.” The foresters came and told him it was a mango.

“Is it good to eat?” the king asked, and the foresters said it was very good. So the king cut it up, gave some to the princes and tasted some himself. He liked it very much, and so did everyone else.

“Where does this mango tree grow?” the king asked. The foresters told him it stood on the riverbank many miles upstream.

“Let’s go and see it and gather some mangoes,” said the king. He had a great many rafts lashed together, and they traveled up the river until the foresters said, “Your Majesty, here is the mango tree.”

They went ashore, and the king and his men gathered up all the mangoes lying under the tree. They enjoyed them so much that the king said, “We’ll stay here tonight and pick more fruit in the morning.” So they ate their supper under the trees and lay down to sleep.

When all was quiet, the Chief of the Monkeys arrived with his troop. Since the fallen fruit had all been eaten, the monkeys leaped from branch to branch, picking mangoes and chattering to each other. They made such a racket that the king woke up. He called his archers and said, “Stand under the tree, and shoot the monkeys when they come down to escape.”

The monkeys saw the archers waiting below with their arrows ready. Shaking with fear, they ran to their Chief. “Chief, the archers are all round the tree, ready to shoot us! What shall we do?”

“Don’t be afraid,” said the Chief. “I will save you. Stay where you are until I call.” The monkeys felt comforted, because he had always helped them whenever they needed it.

The Chief ran out along the branch that stretched over the river. On the far bank stood another tree, but its longest branches did not quite reach the branch he was standing on. “If the monkeys try to jump that gap, some of them will fall in the water and drown,” he said to himself. “I must save them, but how? I know! I’ll make a bridge of my own back.”

So the Chief stretched across and caught hold of the longest branch of the tree on the other side. “Come, monkeys!” he called. “Run out along this branch, step across my back, and then run along the branch of the other tree.”

The monkeys did just as he said. One after another they scampered along the branch, stepped over his back and ran on along the branch beyond. Then they swung down to the ground and raced off to their home.

The king had watched everything the Chief and his troop had done. “That big monkey saved his whole troop,” he said to the archers. “I will make sure he is looked after for the rest of his life.”

And the king kept his word.

About this story

“How the Monkey Saved His Troop” is the twelfth tale in Ellen C. Babbitt’s More Jataka Tales (1922). Babbitt says in her foreword that the stories in this book and her earlier one were retold from the complete English translation of the Jataka made by a guild of scholars under Professor E. B. Cowell.

Babbitt’s chief makes a living bridge across the river with his own back, and in her short version the king, who has watched it all, promises to care for him for the rest of his life.

Read the original: More Jataka Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Best for ages 6–8 — a brave leader who puts his troop’s safety before his own.

Two leaders, opposite first choices

The king responds to disturbed sleep by ordering an ambush. The monkey chief responds to his troop’s fear by finding an escape route. Watching that action changes the king’s conduct. His promise of care matters because he has first created the danger; admiration becomes meaningful when it leads him to stop harming and start helping.

Locate the change

Put the king’s first order and final promise side by side. Between them, write exactly what he sees. What does the chief demonstrate that the king’s own treatment of his followers and the monkeys had lacked?

Questions to ask

• How did the king first find out about mangoes?
• Why couldn’t the monkeys just jump to the other tree?
• Why do you think the king changed his mind about the monkeys?

More stories like this

• The Hawks and Their Friends — another tale from More Jataka Tales
• The Banyan Deer (Nigrodhamiga Jataka) — a leader who offers himself to save others
• The Quarrel of the Quails — a wise leader and his flock