Japanese Folk Tales

The Quarrel of the Monkey and the Crab

The story, artworks, photos or any media is not mine. All rights to the respectful owners and creators.  

A long time ago, on a warm autumn day, a young crab played with his friend, a young monkey. While they were running and playing around, both of them found something. The young crab held up a rice dumpling he had found and said, "Look, my friend! I have found a rice dumpling!" He exclaimed excitedly. The young monkey replied, "I have found something too!" He then held up a persimmon seed. 

Although the monkey was very fond of persimmons, he was jealous of the young crab's dumpling. Since the persimmon seed he had was too hard to eat, the young monkey proposed a deal to the young crab. 

"Give me your dumpling," the monkey said, "And in exchange, I will give you my persimmon seed." The crab was quite hesitant to give his rice dumpling, so he asked, "What benefit will I get, other than having the persimmon seed?"

Being the clever monkey he was, the young monkey replied, "You can plant that seed, and it will grow into an abundant tree full of persimmons."

Hearing this, the crab agreed without a second thought, for he very much loved ripe persimmons. "Here, have my rice dumpling," the young crab offered the monkey. The young monkey grabbed it and gobbled it down. After their exchange, the two continued playing.

When the young crab arrived home, he immediately planted the persimmon seed by his home. "I hope you grow and become into a fruitful tree in the future!" The crab said as he planted the seed. 

In the following spring, the persimmon seed sprouted into a healthy young tree, just as the monkey had predicted. The crab became happy, seeing the tree grow every year into a bigger tree.

Many years later, the crab had aged and now had a son. Seeing that the persimmons were perfectly ripe, the crab exclaimed joyfully, "The persimmons look delicious! I shall harvest them." The crab then tried to climb up the tall tree, but he could not. He tried many times, but failed in the end. Almost losing hope, he had an idea. "I could ask my friend the monkey to climb up and help me harvest these persimmons!" With this in mind, the crab went on his way to visit his old friend. 

"My friend," the crab called out to the monkey. "I need your assistance!" The monkey looked down from his branch and saw the crab. "Yes," the monkey went down from his branch. "I hear you need my help?" The crab nodded, "The persimmon tree's fruit has ripened. Could do me a favour and help me harvest some?" The monkey quickly consented, and devised a plan to take some persimmons for himself. 

When they had arrived, the monkey quickly climbed the tree and plucked the ripened fruits as fast as he could. The crab was grateful for the monkey helping him, but little did the crab know of the monkey's plan. After harvesting several fruits, the monkey quick ate all he harvested. Seeing this, the crab was shocked. "Dear friend, please remember your promise of helping me harvest them! Don't finish all of the fruits on your own!" The crab felt betrayed, since he was the one who cared and tended the tree all these years. 

But the monkey did not listen to the poor crab. Instead, the monkey threw an unripe, green, and hard persimmon at the crab. The crab was damaged greatly, and now was pleading the monkey to stop. Still, the monkey continued throwing unripe persimmons at the defenceless crab. He kept throwing until the crab died. The monkey soon realised he had murdered the poor crab, so he ran away like a coward.

When the crab's son arrived home, he saw his father's  wounded body. He mourned greatly, and then saw the persimmon peels that were scattered around. The young crab immediately knew that the monkey was the murderer, for his father had told him about the story of the rice dumpling and the persimmon seed. The young crab wanted to avenge his father's death, so he called some old friends of his father and told them about his father's death. His old friends mourned, and then came up together with a plan to teach the monkey a lesson.

A week later, the young crab sent out a messenger to the monkey. The messenger arrived at the monkey's place saying, "It has been 7 days since the death of the old crab. The young crab has invited you to a ceremony of his death, so that we may mourn together." The monkey was surprised that he was not suspected to be the murderer, so he cried fake tears. "Yes, I will attend." After delivering the message, the messenger went back and gave time for the monkey to prepare and head to the ceremony. The monkey sneered to himself, "They did not suspect me! Therefore they see me as innocent!" He cackled. "Fools! Little do they know! What a laughingstock they are!"

It was soon time for the ceremony to start, and the monkey arrived with a sorrowful face. The young crab greeted him, and thought, "What a bad actor, he can't even make himself look miserable and devastated as he say he is." 

The ceremony finished, and everyone had a feast for dinner. The monkey greedily ate plenty of food, not even minding his manners. After eating, the young crab led everyone to a hall where they could have a tea ceremony. 

"I am so thirsty after drinking so much sake, drinking tea would clearly quench my thirst. However, this tea ceremony goes on too slow, I shall take some water for myself." The monkey exclaimed happily. And so he went near the fireplace to pour himself some hot water for his tea. Suddenly, something hit the monkey's neck. It was the chestnut, an old friend of the crab. Hurt, the monkey jumped backward, but was then stung by a bee, who was also a friend of the crab. He yelped in pain and ran as fast as he could, but tripped over a stone mortar, who was another friend of the crab. He screeched, clearly in pain. He then saw the young crab who was in front of him. 

"What do you want?!" The monkey asked in anger. 

"You killed my father, didn't you?" The young crab said in a calm voice. 

"N-No, I never did such a thing!" The monkey exclaimed anxiously.

"Liar! You killed my father out of greed, you murderer!" The young crab raised his voice at the monkey.

"Then, you-" The monkey fearfully pointed at the young crab, "Are my e-enemy?"

"Of course." The crab replied, with a deadly tone in his voice. 

"It was your father's fault not mine!" The monkey gasped as he tried to run. 

"You still want to lie? I will soon put an end to your breath!" And with that, the young crab used his pinchers to cut off the evil monkey's head. The monkey received his rightful punishment after all of the evil things he did.

And that is the end of the story.

Hello, everyone! It took me a while to upload another chapter, but here I am! School has started for me, and the schoolwork has increased greatly. I do apologise for not updating that often, forgive me. 

Thank you for reading as always, readers! I really appreciate it.

+ I am very grateful to the readers who voted, commented, and even added this book to their reading lists. It means so much, and it helps motivate me to upload more =) Thank you, everyone!

See you all in the next chapter,

Elizabeth =)