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 Once upon a time, on the banks of a big river, there lived a monkey, on top of an apple tree. The apples grew all year round and they tasted yummy. The monkey grew up on those apples and lived happily. One day while it was jumping from one branch to the other, it saw a crocodile looking very sad and tired. It jumped to a lower branch and enquired of the reason for the crocodile being so sad. The crocodile told the monkey that he had not eaten for three days and it was fast becoming very weak. The monkey immediately plucked a few apples from the tree and threw it to the crocodile. The crocodile gulped them eagerly, thanked the monkey ad with a new vigour whisked his tail and swam away. The crocodile started meeting the monkey regularly and they became good friends. One day, the crocodile took a couple of apples to his wife. She ate the delicious apples and her mouth watered at the thought of the apples. She thought if the apples tasted so good, how much better would the monkey taste, after eating the yummy apples regularly. She started insisting that the crocodile bring his friend, so that they could make a meal of him. The crocodile became very sad. On the one hand, he loved his wife very dearly and on the other, he cared very much for his friend. The love for his wife won finally, and one day he invited his friend to his house for a feast. When the monkey pointed out that he could not swim, the crocodile offered to carry him on his back Thus the two friends set off to the crocodile's house. On the way the crocodile became very sad and started shedding tears. The monkey seeing this, asked the reason for the sudden grief. The crocodile told him of his wife's wicked plan. The clever monkey thought of a way out. He consoled the crocodile and told him that he always kept his heart hidden in a hole in the tree, for safe-keeping. He offered to take his heart from the hiding place & give it to him. The crocodile turned round and reached the shores. The monkey jumped off the crocodile's back & quickly scampered up the tree. The crocodile kept waiting for the monkey to return. After sometime he called out for his friend. But, he got no reply in return and nor did he get the delicious apples from that day onwards. |