English · Completing Story
The Cap Seller and the Monkeys
Completing story: monkeys steal a cap seller's goods and imitation returns them.
A sleeping cap seller loses his caps to imitating monkeys and recovers them by imitation too.
The story begins: A cap seller was going from one village to another with a basket of caps on his head. Feeling tired, he sat down under a tree and fell asleep.
The Story
A cap seller used to carry his goods in a large basket on his head, going from village to village to sell them. One hot afternoon, tired with walking, he sat down to rest under a big tree by the roadside.
He put the basket down beside him, took out one cap and put it on his own head to keep off the sun, and very soon fell fast asleep.
In the branches above him sat a troop of monkeys. They watched the sleeping man for a while, and then, being curious and fond of imitating, they climbed down quietly, took the caps from the basket and carried them up into the tree.
Each monkey put a cap on its head, exactly as the man had done, and sat chattering with delight among the leaves.
When the cap seller woke and saw his empty basket he was filled with despair. All his goods were gone, and with them his living. Then he happened to look up, and saw the whole troop above him wearing his caps.
He shouted at them and shook his fist. The monkeys shouted back and shook their fists. He made faces at them; they made faces at him. Whatever he did, they did the same, and not one cap came down.
At last, in anger and hopelessness, he pulled the cap from his own head and threw it on the ground.
Instantly every monkey in the tree pulled off its cap and threw it down too. The caps fell all around him like leaves.
The cap seller gathered them up, put them back in his basket and went on his way, laughing at his own good fortune — for the very habit of imitation that had robbed him had also given him back everything he had lost.
Moral: Presence of mind succeeds where anger fails.
Frequently Asked Questions
That presence of mind solves what anger cannot, and that a weakness in an opponent can be turned to your advantage. The cap seller recovers his goods only when he stops shouting and uses the monkeys' habit of imitation.
Because that is what the monkeys imitate, and it is what makes the ending possible. If he does not put a cap on before sleeping, throwing one down later has no meaning. It is the detail most often left out when students complete this story.
Yes — shouting, shaking his fist, making faces, all copied back at him. Those failed attempts build the frustration and make the final idea feel like a discovery rather than a lucky guess, which is what gives the story its shape.
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