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The battle of the monkey and the crab
There once was a crab who had a single onigiri. A monkey was walking by and ran into the crab. The monkey said to the crab, "Hey, Mr. Crab, how about trading that onigiri for this persimmon seed I have? You only have one onigiri but if you plant this persimmon seed, you can have lots of persimmons to eat." The crab said "Oh, OK" and he traded his onigiri for the persimmon seed. Some years later, the seed that the crab had planted had grown into a big tree with many persimmons. When the monkey saw this, he felt that he had gotten the short end of the deal and decided to pick on the crab. "Hey, Mr. Crab, look how big your persimmons have gotten. I gave you the seed so these fruits are mine," he said, and he climbed up the tree and hurled the persimmons down on the crab, hurting him.
The crab, who was very upset, decided to ask his friends - a bee, a rice mortar, and a mallet for help. "I want to teach that monkey a lesson." A few days later, the crab invited the monkey to his house. When the monkey tried to enter, the bee stung him. Then, the rice mortar and mallet dropped on top of him. "You tried to steal the crab's persimmons, so you were bad," they all said. The monkey started to cry and said "I'm sorry, I won't do it again. Please forgive me." After that, they all had a good time eating persimmons and became friends. |
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Makiko Yasuda |
