The cunning Monkey!

Long ago, in a rural pocket of Silbaripuram, there was a major monkey menace. These monkeys would hide behind the houses and wait for the right moment. When the kitchens or verandahs were left unattended, they would sneak in, steal food, and bolt back into the nearby forest.

One day, as usual, a monkey arrived behind a house only to find two hens pecking and fighting with each other in the courtyard. When the monkey asked what the fuss was about, he found they were arguing over a piece of Kallappam (toddy pancake) lying on the ground.

Immediately, the monkey interjected, "I can split it into two equal halves for you. Why fight over such a small matter?"

The hens agreed. The monkey took the appam and broke it into two. However, he played a trick—the pieces were not equal! One was clearly larger than the other.

When he held them out, one hen looked at the smaller piece and complained, "This isn't fair. One is small and the other is big!"

"Don't worry, I will fix it right away," the monkey replied quickly.

He then took a bite out of the larger piece to "level" it, but purposefully ate too much, making it smaller than the first one!

The other hen cried out, "Now the other piece has become smaller than the first one!"

The monkey repeated this—biting a bit from the larger side each time—and the cycle continued. The hens remained dissatisfied and argumentative, failing to notice that with every "adjustment," the appam was actually disappearing into the monkey’s stomach.

Eventually, even the tiniest crumbs vanished into the monkey’s belly. Only then did the hens realize they had been fooled.

Fuming with rage, the hens flew at the monkey to peck him, but he happily skipped away and disappeared into the forest!

The Moral: Many people live their lives caught up in unnecessary arguments and disputes, only to end up with nothing at all—losing both what they had and what they hoped to gain.