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Every day, a humble monk came to pay his respects to a great and wonderful king, who had watched over and protected his kingdom for many years with justice and kindness. The monk came daily and presented the king with a piece of fruit, thanked the king again for his kindness, and left. Although the king was a good man, he did not care so much about the fruit and because the fruit from his own orchard was always bigger and tastier appearing, he threw the fruit away each day without a second thought. This was not done out of spite, but simply a matter of course, for the king was a rich man and happy, who was simply grateful for the obeisance of the monk.
One day, the monk came in as was his custom, and gave the king a small fruit. Bowing and thanking the king, he took his leave, as usual. This day however, there was a young pet monkey that happened to be roaming around the courtyard as the monk left. Absentmindedly, the king gave the fruit to the monkey, who gleefully cracked it open to eat the juicy insides. To the court’s astonishment, a large gleaming jewel fell out of the fruit. Everyone gasped in astonishment, and the king immediately ran to his window, where he had discarded so many other fruits. He grabbed one and cracked it open as well. A large ruby sat in his palm.
Amazed, he began extracting the various precious stones from each of the fruits. Some of them were so old and dried that it took great effort to open it, but each time a more glorious gem than before fell into his hands. The king and his court spent nearly the whole afternoon searching for and opening all of the little fruits that had been brought to him by the humble monk, until a large pile of priceless jewels sat before him.
The next day, when the monk arrived, the king confronted him and asked him why he had not said anything about the jewels or asked for a royal favor. The king had so many questions. Why was he giving the king the jewels? Where did the come from? How could a lowly monk have such great riches?
The monk listened to the king as he asked him question after question, but remained kneeling in silence before him. At last, the king had exhausted himself with his interrogations and turned to the monk, demanding answers. The monk only shook his head and with a note of sadness asked the king one simple question:
Why, after all these years, did you never even try the fruit I brought you? Surely you could see the love and care with which I brought these each day, and y
et were you too proud to even open one, to even taste it?
The king dropped his head in shame as the monk slowly walked out, never to be seen again in the court of the great king.
Author’s note: This story I have written is based solely on the first part of the book “22 Goblins,” compiled by Arthur Ryder. In the book, the same situation occurs, but the monk is totally unaffected by the haughtiness of the king and in fact, such a snub (after 12 years) is not even mentioned. The monk instead asks a favor of the king, wherein the king retrieves a goblin that is hanging from a tree near a cemetery, which the monk plans to use for a magical rite. However, I liked the setup so much that I thought a powerful lesson could be learned by the actions of this ungrateful king. I ignored the rest of the story of the goblins and instead focused on the moral lesson of gift giving and receiving.
Blake,
ReplyDeleteI had not read the original story but I really enjoyed yours. I was curious what was wrong with the fruit. I like stories that tell lessons at the end and the way you wrote about the monk and kings interaction made me sympathize with the monk. I also liked that you had the monk leave and never return, so that hopefully the king learned a valuable lesson himself. Great story!
Blake,
ReplyDeleteYour story once again amazes me with your writing ability! It is hard to write a story with a message and in the end, I just really like the change you make from the original story. I actually like the image of the king giving the fruit to the monkey because I was thinking of situation where the monkey takes the fruit away then the king did not see any and then a huge misunderstanding would occur, but you completely shut down my (cliche) mind. I feel so bad for the monk at the end and I hope the king would apologize and make up with him. Thank you for sharing and great job!
Blake,
ReplyDeleteI really like what you did here! You provided a very clear story that was engaging and fun to read. I am very impressed with how you changed the original story in order to teach a lesson about gift giving and receiving. Your message was very clear, so you definitely accomplished your goal. I felt for the monk, and wish that the king would have eventually sought out the monk to apologize, but I think your ending is suiting for the message you were trying to display. Thank you for sharing this message, stellar job!
Blake, this was a really well-done story. I hadn't read the original story you referenced, but I like that, sort of like a fable, your story had a clear moral to be learned from it. You might consider adding some dialogue to your story — it would be interested to hear how the monk interacted with the king, or what the king said to the monkey, and it might also break up some longer paragraphs in the story.
ReplyDeleteHey Blake,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the theme of this story. I could tell from the beginning that the king was missing out on something else when he was discarding the monk's fruit. The monk spent all of that time and energy presenting gifts, but the appearance on the outside did not intrigue the king. I thought that was a really cool message. I really enjoyed how the monk did not return after the fact. I hope that the king learned to not be so spoiled after that.