Extra Reading: Week 11

The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls:

- One day the king and his family went for a swim in the lake
- When they were all getting ready to get in the water, the Queen and her ladies left their jewelry in the hands of the servants
- The Queen put a string of pearls in a box and gave it to a servant girl- but a girl monkey was watching her
- The monkey continued to watch, hoping the servant would fall asleep and she would be able to steal them
- Eventually the servant fell asleep and the girl monkey stole the Pearls
- When the servant woke up, she saw that the pearls were gone and told the guards
- They all went to search for the theif
- The cheif guard was suspicious because he knew that the garden was very secure and no one could get in, so he bought a number of colored beads to trick the monkeys.
- When the monkeys stole the colored beads, the girl monkey that stole the Queen's pearls took the pearls out of hiding and bragged to the other monkeys that her pearls were better than their beads
- The girl monkey was caught and the Queen got her pearls back

velvet monkey

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt "More Jataka Tales"