The lost Monkey: A story told by Muhundi

A long time ago a farmer raised a monkey, and he taught the monkey every habit of human beings. He took him as his own child. One day the farmer and his wife were going to the fields, they instructed the monkey to remain at home and not go anywhere until their return. The farmer  and his wife left. As soon they went away, a group of monkeys came to visit the farmer’s adopted monkey child. They persuaded him to go with them to the forest to play. On another day, as the couple went to the fields again,  those monkeys came again but this time they made him run away from his home.

When the farmer returned to his home, he did not find the monkey. He became very sad as he did not know where he might have been. He decided to go on a journey to the forest to look for his lost child. As he was walking through the forest, he saw a group of monkeys and thought that his monkey was among them. The monkeys asked him: “What are you looking for?” The man answered: “I am looking for my child.” So they asked him: “What does it look like?” He answered: “His skin is just like yours.” But the monkeys told him that they had not seen him.

He then continued with his search and found another group of very many monkeys. They asked him what he was looking for, and he told them that he was looking for his child. “What does it look like?” –“His skin is just like yours.” The monkeys said: “All right! Try to find it in our group.” The man began to search and he finally found his monkey among them. He was now very happy. “This is the one!” he screamed. When the group of monkeys saw how joyous the man was, they began to argue with each other. Some did not want the child monkey to leave the group while others said they should just kill the baby monkey, so that everyone loses. After discussing a lot, their leader decided that the man should be killed, so that the child monkey would still remain in their group. They all killed the man and took the child monkey.