Here is another nice tale/ story from the Jataka
collection. Once upon a time, there lived the King of a big and affluent
country. The King was quite fond of traveling. Usually, he didn’t
like to visit his own country; instead he went to other countries. One
day, he assembled his army to move out for a holiday to some distant
country. The King and his soldiers walked for the whole morning in the
forest. After this, they went into the camp to take some rest.
The horses were also tired, so they were fed with peas. One of the
Monkeys, who lived in the forest, was keeping a track of the things done
by the king’s men from a distance. When he saw peas offered to the
horses, he jumped down from the tree at once to get some of them. He
quickly gobbled some peas, also filled his mouth and hands with them.
Then, he went up the tree and sat down to eat the peas.
As and when, he sat there to eat peas; one pea fell from his hand to
the ground. The greedy monkey dropped all the peas he had in his hands
and ran down to look for the lost pea at once. Unluckily, he could not
find that one pea. He climbed up the tree again and sat at rest. He was
looking very sad. He said to himself, “To get one pea, I threw away
what I had”.
The King was watching the monkey from the camp and said to himself, “I
would not be like this stupid monkey, who lost much to gain a little. I
will go back to my own country and enjoy what I have”. Thus, the
King and his army marched back to their own country.
Moral: Value the things you have.
