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Story 164: Old monkey mocks people for not having a tail

Old monkey mocks people for not having a tail

Author: Anonymous

When a wise man sees another wise man who is poor,
he will naturally feel proud of his wealth and status; it is as stupid
as an old monkey pulling a person and
laughing at him for having no tail.

Once upon a time, there was a large forest in the south of ancient India, where many monkeys lived. Once, a farmer went to see his crops and met a group of monkeys. The farmer was captured by them. The monkeys surrounded the farmer and laughed at him, saying: This person looks like one of our kind! But this person has no tail, how strange!

The foolish people should not laugh at the poverty of the wise as a shortcoming, but should praise it as an advantage. This was the wrong view of the ancient Indian Brahmans at that time. And the monkeys laughed at the fact that people had no tails as a shortcoming. Isn’t this even more foolish?