The Monkey with the Tom-tom

Deep in a faraway wood there lived a monkey. One day, while he was eating wood-apples, a sharp thorn from the tree stuck in the tip of his tail. He tried and tried, but he could not get it out. So off he went to the nearest village and called for the barber.

“Friend barber,” said the monkey, “a thorn has got stuck in my tail. Please take it out, and I will reward you.”

The barber picked up his razor and looked closely at the tail. But as he was cutting out the thorn, he cut off the tip of the tail as well!

The monkey was furious. “Friend barber,” he said, “give me back my tail! And if you can’t do that, give me your razor.”

Now the barber was in a fix. He could not put the tip of the tail back on, so he had to hand over his razor.

The monkey set off back to the wood with the razor he had won by his trickery. On the way he met an old woman chopping firewood from a dead tree.

“Granny, Granny,” said the monkey, “that tree is very hard. Use this sharp razor instead, and you will cut your firewood easily.”

The poor woman was very pleased and took the razor. But of course, chopping wood with it made it blunt. When the monkey saw that his razor was spoiled, he said, “Granny, you have ruined my razor. Now you must either give me your firewood or get me a better razor.”

The old woman had no way of getting another razor, so she gave the monkey her firewood and went home that day with nothing to carry.

The sly monkey put the bundle of firewood on his head and set off to sell it in a village. There he met another old woman, sitting by the roadside making puddings.

“Granny, Granny,” said the monkey, “you are making puddings, and your firewood has run out. Use mine too, and make more cakes.”

The old woman thanked him for his kindness and used his firewood to cook her puddings. The cunning monkey waited until the very last stick had burned away. Then he said, “Granny, Granny, give me back my firewood, or give me all your puddings!”

She could not give him back the firewood, so she had to give him all her puddings.

With the basket of puddings on his head, the monkey walked and walked, until he met a drummer coming towards him with a tom-tom, a small drum.

“Brother,” said the monkey, “I have a whole basket of puddings to give you. Will you give me your tom-tom in return?”

The drummer was very hungry and had nothing to eat, so he gladly agreed.

Then the monkey climbed to the very top branch of a big tree with the tom-tom, and there he beat his drum as proudly as could be, singing about all his clever tricks:

“I lost my tail and got a razor. Dum, dum!
I lost my razor and got some firewood. Dum, dum!
I lost my firewood and got some puddings. Dum, dum!
I lost my puddings and got a tom-tom. Dum, dum!”

And so there are rascals in this innocent world who live to boast about their wicked tricks.

Where this story comes from

This tale comes from Tales of the Sun; or, Folklore of Southern India, by Mrs. Howard Kingscote and Pandit Natesa Sastri, published in London in 1890. A footnote in the book compares it with “The Rat’s Wedding”, a story from the Punjab, in which, it says, a better moral is drawn.

In the original, the man with the tom-tom is described by his caste, which a footnote calls “a low caste man”; here he is simply a drummer. The book explains that “dum dum” is the sound of the tom-tom.

Read the original: Kingscote and Natesa Sastri, Tales of the Sun (Project Gutenberg #37002, The Monkey with the Tom-tom)

Reading guidance: ages 6–8 with adult selection. The opening includes an accidental cutting injury, and the later comedy involves unfair demands rather than harmless swapping.

A closer reading

The chain begins with a real injury, but the monkey later creates losses himself. He recommends a razor for chopping wood, then treats the predictable damage as the user’s fault. Next he offers fuel for cooking and demands it back only after it has been consumed. He changes the terms after the other person can no longer return the object.

The last exchange works differently: he asks the hungry drummer in advance whether he will trade his drum for the puddings, and the drummer agrees. The boastful song presents all four transactions as alike, disguising the difference between compensation, coercion and an agreed exchange. Its cheerful rhythm is part of the monkey’s self-serving version of events.

Try this with the story

Draw the tail, razor, wood, puddings and drum as a chain. Mark each arrow with ‘terms stated before’ or ‘terms demanded afterward.’ Then retell one exchange from the old woman’s point of view and compare it with the monkey’s ‘I lost… I got…’ song.

Talk about it

• What happened to the monkey’s tail at the barber’s?
• What did the monkey get from each person he met?
• Was the monkey fair to the people he tricked?
• Can you beat a drum and sing the monkey’s song?

Related stories

• The Jackal and the Iguana — another funny Indian animal tale with a rhyme
• The Sparrow And The Crow — another Indian chain tale
• Charity Alone Conquers — another tale from Tales of the Sun