The monkey and crab - a Japanese folk story

Once upon a time, there was a family of crabs. One day the mother crab found a big rice ball. She was so happy, and tried to bring it back to her house for her children. Then she met a monkey. 

"Hey, you!! I'm so hungry. Give me your rice ball." he said. However, the mother crab refused. 

"Okay. Then let's trade your rice ball for my persimmon seed" the monkey suggested. "If you have this seed, you can grow a persimmon tree. You can eat many persimmons." In the end, the mother crab gave the monkey the rice ball. 

She started to take care of the tree. After a while, the seed grew up to be a big persimmon tree. It had many persimmons. The mother crab tried to pick them, but she couldn't because she was too short.

Suddenly, the monkey came and said "Hey, may I help you? I can climb it."

"Yes, please. Thank you." she said.

But when the monkey reached the top of the tree, he started to eat all the persimmons. The mother crab got angry. "No. You should come down from my tree right now."

Then the monkey threw some hard persimmons at her. "Shut up!" he said. One of them hit her, and she died.

After a few days, her children tried to kill the monkey. They had some friends who could help them. The chestnut, a bee, a cow dung, and a handmill. When the monkey came into their house, the chestnut and the bee stabbed him. The cow dung lost his footing. Finally, the handmill crushed him. They killed the monkey and lived happily ever after.

Posted for Akane