“After a while the sailor decided he could live more profitably in the forest as a trapper and robber than as an honest seaman.  At about the same time the scholar decided to become a hermit and devote all his life to the worship of God.  He too went to live in the forest with his parrot.  Now it so happened that the king of that country lost his way in that forest while he was on a hunting expedition.  Suddenly he heard a parrot shriek coarsely, ‘Look, look, a man! He is alone! He looks rich! We will kill him off! We will take his money!’

“The king, terrified, turned his horse and rode quickly away, until, unexpectedly, he heard another parrot exclaim in perfect scholarly language, ‘Master, there is a lonely man on horseback.  We must receive him with honor!’ At once the scholar emerged from his hermitage, welcomed the king with great respect, and regaled him.  You see, sire, although the two parrots were twins, they had learned very different habits and even languages because they had different company while they were young.”

“If it is so hard to know whom one can trust,” wondered the king, “can one trust one’s own friends?” “No, indeed not, sire,” answered the storyteller.  “That is made clear by the fable of the monkey and the shark.”

The monkey and the shark. “A monkey lived in a tree overlooking the ocean.  Below the overhanging branches of the tree there was a deep place near the steep wall of the coral rock.  In this deep place there lived a shark.  The monkey and the shark often talked to each other as good neighbors.  One day the shark felt hungry and decided to ask the monkey how to obtain food. The monkey answered obligingly, ‘Here, try these.  Tell me if you like them.’  He threw the shark some of the fruit that he picked from the tree for his daily sustenance.

“The fruit fell into the water, and the shark, after tasting it, said, ‘Yes, thank you, Mr. Monkey, this is good food.  Can I have some more?” ‘There is plenty, and I always can get more from the next tree,’ answered the friendly monkey.  In this way they became good friends, vowing to stay together forever.

“Now this shark had a wife who had a friend.  The friend said to her, ‘You will see that your husband has found himself a girl friend! How else can you explain his long absences? Now here is what you must do – when he comes home, you ask your husband who his new friend is.  Then, instead of nagging him, you pretend to be mortally ill and say that only the heart of such a type as that friend is can cure you.  Then he will kill his friend for you, something you could never do.’