Pitara Kids Home > Talespin > Folktales for kids

Why Monkeys Mean Trouble

By B Sumangal; Illustrations by Sudheer Nath

In the village of Sholingur in Tamil Nadu, is a temple dedicated to the Hindu monkey god Hanuman. The temple is on top of a small hill. In and around the hill in the thick forest live a group of monkeys. All they do is scare people and create trouble -- even when people worship them as symbols of Hanuman. And there's a story behind why they create trouble.…

The story goes back a long time. In the village lived an old couple. The old woman would make delicious sweets every day and take them to the market where her husband sat at a stall and sold them.

The old woman's sweets were so popular that whoever came to the temple specially stopped at the old man's stall to buy her sweets.

One day, on her way to the market, the old woman tripped over a rock and fell. The basketful of sweets that she was carrying fell too. The sweets scattered on the ground.

The old woman sank to the ground and wailed loudly in Tamil, "Aieeow! vambu velaiku vaindu vanthene!" (Look at this trouble I bought!). She started walking back home to get another fresh batch of sweets.

She did not know but she was being watched by a monkey. As soon as she left, the monkey swung down from the tree branch he was sitting upon and came to examine the sweets.

He picked up a sweet and smelt it. His eyes lit up. Food! It made his mouth water as he hadn't had breakfast. He tucked into the sweet and found it to be delicious.

He gobbled up two more. Looking around furtively, he stuffed five more in his mouth before the gang arrived for their share. He grabbed another two for good measure and hurried up the tree. Whatever it was that the woman had called it was very tasty.

Then he remembered that the old woman had called it "trouble". For when the sweets had fallen she had wailed, "Oh look at the trouble I bought!"