The Monkey Who Pulled Out the Wedge

Near a certain town, a merchant's son began building a temple to the gods. The carpenters and craftsmen working there would go off into town at midday to eat.

One day a troop of monkeys came wandering by. Lying in the temple yard was a heavy beam of anjani wood which the workmen had sawn halfway through; they had driven a hardwood wedge into the split and left it there to hold the cut open.

The monkeys began leaping and tumbling about the site. One of them — a fellow whose death had already come close — climbed onto the half-sawn beam and sat down straddling the crack, with himself hanging down into the gap. Playing, he took hold of the wedge with both hands and began to tug.

"Whose work is this? Why has this wedge been driven in here?" — he never asked. He hauled with all his strength and the wedge came free. The split beam snapped shut, and the monkey was crushed to death on the spot.

That is why Karataka told Damanaka: "Whoever puts his hand, uninvited, into another's work comes to that monkey's end. We are getting our food; what business have we with this trouble?" But Damanaka answered: "A wise creature does not live merely to fill its belly. To help a friend and repay an enemy — that is the fruit of living. If a full stomach were the point, a crow lives long enough and eats its offerings too."

अव्यापारेषु व्यापारं यो नरः कर्तुमिच्छति । स एव निधनं याति कीलोत्पाटीव वानरः ॥

Moral: The man who insists on meddling in business that is not his own goes to his destruction — like the monkey who pulled out the wedge.

From the Panchatantra, Book I — The Loss of Friends.