The Gem & the Monkey

There once lived a prince who was noble and just. He was looking for a rare ruby to fullfil his father’s wish. He was desperate to find the gem and searched across length and breadth of his kingdom but in vain. In a dense forest, a monkey found a shiny red object and was instantly attracted to it. The monkey grabbed and played with it to its hearts content. The curious monkey eventually wanted break and see what was within the shiny object. He scratched on rough surfaces, he threw it from heights, he even tried to drown it and burn it but the object remained unaltered. The other monkeys saw this and wanted to play with the shiny object, but the curious monkey was so obsessed with the shiny object that he tried to eat it one day so he can have it for himself. So he went to a lonely place and sat on a tree top where nobody could find him and tried to eat the object. He took the first bite and hurt his teeth. Monkey got furious and started to hit it and bite harder. Just then the prince and his men were in the forest for hunting and the monkey saw them from above. The men carried fruits and the monkey couldn’t resist the banana he saw. Finally the angry monkey knew the shiny object was unworthy and threw it from the tree top and grabbed the banana from the men and ran away. The shiny object fell on the prince’s head. Prince saw that and instantly realized it was the rarest gem he was looking for. He happily took the precious gem and returned to palace and gifted to his father, the king. The king was so happy that the gem finally adorned his crown. The whole country gathered to see the gem and the new crown. The King was so happy that he announced the prince to be successor immediately.

Moral: Sometimes just because you are in the wrong place your value is not appreciated. The ruby in the monkey’s hand is just a useless stone whereas in a King’s possession, it adorned the crown. The major value in life is not what you get but what you become.

A value is valuable when the value of value is valuable to oneself!

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