How the Monkey and the Goat Earned Their Reputations

Early the next morning the host discovered that one of his lambs was missing. He hastened to the room where the tiger and the goat were sleeping and accused the tiger of having killed the lamb. The tiger looked up at him with an innocent expression and asked, "Do you see any blood on me?" There was no blood on the tiger, but the host looked into the next hammock and saw the goat all covered with blood. "I know now who killed my fattest lamb," he said, and he gave the goat such a beating that the poor goat barely escaped with his life. From that day to this when one speaks of a person who has been easily imposed upon he calls him "the goat."

Things happened very differently with the monkey. One day not long afterward the tiger invited the monkey to accompany him when he went to visit his friend. The monkey accepted, and the tiger and the monkey set out on the journey. When they came to the marsh the tiger said to the monkey, "Friend Monkey, how very pale you look when you think about crossing the marsh. Don't be afraid. Just go ahead."

"You go ahead yourself," replied the monkey. The tiger went through the marsh and fell into the mud so that he was barely able to get out again. The monkey went around the marsh and walked on dry ground.

After a while the tiger and the monkey came to the banana trees. "Friend Monkey," said the tiger, "aren't you hungry? Let us stop here and eat some bananas. You climb up and pluck the bananas. Give the ripe ones to me and you may keep the green ones for yourself." The monkey climbed up and picked the bananas but he ate all the ripe ones himself and threw the green ones down to the tiger. The tiger was forced to go hungry but the monkey had a good meal.

Finally the tiger and the monkey came to a cobra lying in the path. "Friend Monkey," said the tiger, "here you have the opportunity to procure a beautiful necklace for your daughter, free of cost. Pick it up and it is yours."

"Pick it up yourself," replied the monkey.

When the tiger and the monkey arrived at the house of the tiger's friend it was very late.