The monkey and the cats

Once upon a time, two cats were passing through a forest. Suddenly they spotted a loaf of bread lying beneath a tree. Both pounced upon it and caught the loaf at the same time. “It ismine. I saw it first,” claimed one cat. While the other said, “I pounced upon it first and so it belongs to me.” After having fought for a while, one cat said, “Let us divide it into two and takeone piece each.” “Indeed, a good idea,” said the other cat. “But how do we divide it now?”

A monkey sitting on the branch of the tree had watched all that happened between the two cats. “That loaf of bread looks good. I could do with it myself,” he thought. Slowly he came down from the tree and walked up to the confused cats.

“Yes, my dear friends! Can I help you?” asked the monkey. The cats told the monkey what the problem was and said, “Why do not you be the judge between us?” When the monkey nodded,the cats said, “Please divide this loaf for us.”

The clever monkey smilingly broke the bread into two pieces. But one piece was a little bigger that the other. “OH no! I will take a little bite of this bigger piece to make both equal,” said the monkey, slyly. He took a bite from the bigger piece. But, he had taken a big bite. “Uh oh! Now it has become smaller than the other piece. I will just have to take a little bite from this piece now,” said the clever monkey.


The Judge Monkey took another bite. The two cats sat in front of the monkey, seeing the loaf of bread they had found getting smaller and smaller. When the whole loaf was eaten by the monkey, the monkey said, “I am sorry. I was really difficult to divide that loaf. I must be going now.” And the monkey jumped onto the tree and was gone. “If only we had not quarreled among ourselves, we would have remained united and we need not have to go to the monkey and to become hungry now,” said the two cats.

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