Greedy Friends

Long ago there lived two friends. They were best of friends. They were always seen together. One day they planned to go and rob a lonely lady whose mother had died a few days earlier. As per their plan, they agreed that one of them would hide at the cremation ground where the dead mother had been cremated while the other would go to the lady’s house. The other friend went to her house and told the lady that he was sent by her late mother to bring her gold coins so that she could present it to the god of death in order to go to heaven.



The lady did not believe him and refused to give away the gold. “If you don’t believe me, just shout aloud and ask your mother whose soul is still at the cremation ground,” said the man. She went to the window and asked her aloud whether the mother had really asked for the gold coins. “Yes, yes please the send the entire bag, I need to go to heaven” came back the reply from the cremation ground. She quickly took out the bag and handed over to the man and requested him to safely deliver it to her mother.

Carrying the heavy bag of gold, the man ran away leaving his friend buried in the cremation ground. He wanted to have all the gold for himself.

The other friend managed to get out of the cremation ground after a hard struggle and saw his friend climbing a hill with the heavy bag. He ran after him and caught hold of him. After exchanging few harsh words, they settled down to share their loot equally but it could not happen since both wanted a greater share.

Just then a monkey happened to pass by jumping from one branch to another. They requested the monkey to come down and help them to share the gold. The monkey refused saying “it is a difficult task”. After repeated plea the monkey consented and agreed to share the gold equally with a condition that they have to listen to him.

The monkey said, “To be fair and just and to prevent controversy between two of you, I would like to tie each of you apart on a tree”. Saying this, the monkey tied the men on the tree and began to share the gold. The monkey threw a small handful of gold coins to each of them and ran away carrying the rest. They were helpless since they were tied on the tree. They could not free themselves. They had given up the hope when an old man happened to pass by. “Please untie me” said one man “I will give you gold as a reward”. “Do not do it, he would slap you, once he is free instead untie me, I wouldn’t harm you at all” said the other. “No, no, do not make that mistake, in fact he would definitely kill you after he is free” warned the first man. The old man was in dilemma but since he was a kind hearted man he decided to take the risk of setting both the man free. At last they got freed and went away to look for the monkey.