The Monkey Who Stole The Pearl Necklace

Once there ruled a king. He had a beautiful daughter. The princess was very fond of roaming in the forests, seeing waterfalls, rowing and so on.

One day the princess expressed her desire to bath in a lake near the palace. It was a beautiful lake with lotus blooms and clear water. He asked the palace maids to escort the princess, while the guards were asked to go along with them to keep a watch over the entire group.

The princess wore adorable jewels. Her neckpiece was made of large pearls and was very attractive. When they reached the pond, the princess took out the neckpiece and gave it to her maid servant. After this she went into the lake for a dip.

A troop of monkeys lived on a tree near the lake. A naughty female monkey of the troop was sitting on the branch of the tree. She kept watching the princess as she took out her necklace and went for bathing. The female monkey liked the valuable pearl neckpiece and desired to take it away from the maid servant who was taking care of it.

While the princess and her escorts were in the lake, the servant took care of her possessions. The guards kept a watch around. Hours passed by and it gradually became hot and dull. The servant who had been vigilant all this while began to nod. She soon fell asleep. But the female monkey had been keeping a close watch on the servant. In fact, she had been waiting for the servant to fall asleep.

Soon as the female monkey saw that the servant was asleep; she leapt the branches and ran across. She quietly pulled the pearl necklace from the servant's hand and returned back to her tree home.

It was a hot noon and all other monkeys of the troop were asleep. The female monkey wore the necklace and adored herself. But she feared that the guards might see her, so she quickly took it off and hid the beautiful pearl necklace in the hole of the tree. Then she smiled contentedly and went for a nap.

After some time the servant woke. When she came to her senses, she saw the pearl necklace was missing. The servant began crying in panic, "Men of King, men of King, the Queen's pearl necklace has been stolen !"

The guards came running. The servant briefed them about the situation, "I sat here besides the box with the Queen's necklace. I went nowhere, but had fallen asleep for a short while. When I woke up, I found the necklace missing".

The guards searched for the necklace everywhere. It was turning dark and the Queen returned to the palace with all servants, escorts and the guards.

When the king came to know about the lost necklace, he was very angry. He said, "Go and find the pain who dared to steal that royal possession. That necklace is a symbol of royal heritage, and we can loose it".

The guards went away to find the necklace. Then chief guard went to the garden and inspected it closely. He thought to himself, "The garden gates were closed and guarded, so nobody could come here. There are so many monkeys here in the garden. It is likely that to be the mischief of one of these monkeys".

The chief guard thought of a trick. He brought a number of woven bright colored glass beads. After dawn, the guards quietly hung the glass beads strings on branches and bushes all around in the garden.

Next morning, when when the monkeys saw the brightly beaded strings, each of them ran madly after them. They wore the strings around their necks or wrists. Each of them took pride in the string they had. They displayed it in teasingly to their peers. Bug the girl monkey who had taken away the Queen's pearl necklace, sat quietly near the hole in the tree where she hid the necklace. She quietly watched her peers dancing, teasing, rejoicing over their possession of string of glass beads.

Seeing the girl monkey seated alone without any string, all her friends gathered around her and said, "It us sad that you do not have any string", "My beads are beautiful. I love them", " My string is adorable. I shall wear it during the festival celebrations", and so on. The girl monkey who had been listing to them quietly for quite sometime, now broke her silence - "You silly creatures", she said in pride an disgust; "you are dancing with these invaluable glass beat. Throw away your pride, I will show you what I have". Saying this, the girl monkey jump on the tree and took out the beautiful pearl necklace from the hole of the tree. The girl monkey's friends were surprised.

The gaurds had been keeping a close watch on the monkeys all this while. When they saw the pearl necklace, they immediately rushed and took possession of the necklace. They caught the girl monkey and brought her to the chief guard.

The chief guard took the girl monkey to the king. He returned the pearl necklace to the king and said, "My Majesty, here is the pearl necklace and its thief".

The King was elated to see the necklace. He asked the chief guard, "It was not a regular suspect. How did you manage to find the necklace with this little monkey?"

The chief guard bowed respectfully. He explained, "My Majesty, the garden was guarded when the necklace disappeared. However, the garden has many monkeys. They are mischievous animals. I suspected some monkey must have quietly taken away the necklace. But finding the necklace and the monkey who stole it was indeed tricky. I tricked all the monkeys with these inexpensive glass beads. It worked and we thankfully found the royal pearl necklace".

The king was very happy with the chief guard's approach. He appreciated his understanding, approach and rewarded him.