The Monkey and the Wedge

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful jungle and in that jungle lived a few monkey families. The monkeys spent whole days climbing trees and swinging on vine branches, but most of the time they just ate fresh bananas and other fruits.

Every time one of the monkeys found a new banana tree full of fresh, tasty bunches of their favorite fruit, all of the primates soon knew about the discovery, thanks to the loud screeching of their friend.

Then one day, some people started building a temple not far from the jungle where the animals lived. There were many carpenters, bricklayers and other skilled craftsmen fulfilling their tasks every day from early morning.

At noon, they always took a break and had a big long lunch together. After lunch, they went back to work and worked and worked until late in the evening, repeating the same routine day by day for several weeks.

Sounds from the construction carried far into the forest and the monkeys quickly noticed it. Since monkeys are one of the most curious creatures in the world, they were of course very eager to see where all the noise was coming from and what was causing it.

It didn’t take them long to muster up the courage and go exploring, jumping and leaping and jumping all of the way to the site of the future temple. They climbed and climbed up the closest giant tree and watched the men immersed in their work from the tree top..

The monkeys were most interested in a nearby pair of carpenters struggling with a gigantic beam. They had been hacking away at it for quite some time already, still unable to chop it in two. But then, out of the blue, everybody stopped working. It…