The presumptuous monkey

A long rainy season caused the rivers to overflow and flood the jungle. Many of the animals that lived on the ground had to climb up the trees to avoid the rising water.

The ground animals did not know how to live on the tree tops so they asked the monkey to teach them. The monkey has lived on the tree tops for all his life and he knew everything about it.

At first the monkey was willing to teach the ground animals about life on the tree tops, where to sleep, where to look for food, and how to move around.

But after some time, the monkey became arrogant. You see, among the ground animals that now had to live on the tree tops was the Queen of the Jungle. Sheeba the animals called her and she was the biggest tigress in the whole jungle and she ruled over the other animals.

The presumptuous monkey felt big because he was needed by the Queen. He was the one teaching her about this and that, and she was the one asking him for help and advise. If she made a mistake, he could scold her although no animal dared raise their voice or even look with displeasure at her. And Sheeba had to accept all the criticism and scolding and belittling words that the presumptuous monkey threw at her, because she needed him to survive on the tree tops.

The presumptuous monkey took the Queens silence as a green light to treat the other animals slightly as well, and of course they too had to swallow it all in because they were on his turf and they needed his help.

The presumptuous monkey felt like he was the king of the jungle now. He felt so big and haughty and thought that he could treat the other animals however he liked and they can't do anything about it.

Of course this was true - until the water subsided.

The presumptuous monkey was feeling so full of himself that he did not notice the flood had ended. When he saw Queen Sheeba, he called to her roughly and talked to her with slight as he usually did.

This time the Queen had no reason to take his ugly attitude. She grabbed his skinny neck in her massive paws and pulled him to her jaws so that he could see clearly the deadly fangs inside.

"Do not presume that you can treat others as you like", she growled. "I swallowed in your attitude because I needed your help at the time, and there was nothing I could do about it. Now I am no longer at your mercy. I have no reason to take in your ugly attitude, and no reason to not crush you in my paws"

"You messed with the wrong animal" And with that, the foolish monkey who thought he could treat others as he liked because they needed him became Queen Sheeba's lunch.

Lessons:

1. Do not treat people slightly because they happen to need you and are at your mercy

2. Just because you have the upper hand over someone because they are on your turf, it does not mean that they are always your lesser. You never know who they might be elsewhere, and what they can do.

3. Treat everyone with respect regardless of anything - it is as simple as that.

4. If you treat someone sightly because you arrogantly believe you are their superior, be prepared to meet the consequences. There will befinitly be repercussions - don't doubt it.