Beside a wide stretch of water grew a tree heavy with delicious fruit. High in its branches lived a monkey who had everything he needed — shade, a safe place to sleep and more fruit than he could eat.
One day, a crocodile came out of the water and rested beneath the tree. The monkey looked down. He had plenty of fruit, so he threw some to the visitor. The crocodile ate it. It was delicious.
The next day, he came back. The monkey shared more fruit. Soon the crocodile was visiting regularly. The two animals talked for hours, and an unlikely friendship grew between the creature who lived in the branches and the creature who lived beneath the water.
The crocodile began carrying some of the fruit home. His wife tasted it and loved it too. But then a strange thought entered her mind. If the monkey ate fruit this sweet every day, she wondered, how sweet must the monkey himself be? She told her husband that she wanted the monkey's heart.
The crocodile was horrified. The monkey was his friend. But his wife would not let the matter go.
At last, the crocodile returned to the tree and invited the monkey to visit his home. The monkey could not swim, so the crocodile offered to carry him.
The monkey climbed onto his friend's back. They moved farther and farther from the shore. Water surrounded them.
Then the crocodile finally admitted the truth. He was not taking the monkey to dinner. His wife wanted the monkey's heart.
For a moment, the monkey must have been terrified. He was far from his tree, sitting on the back of a crocodile in deep water. There was no branch to grab, no ground to run across and no animal nearby to help him.
But the monkey still had one thing. His mind.
He acted surprised. Why had the crocodile not told him before they left? The monkey explained that he had left his heart safely back in the tree. If the crocodile needed it, they would simply have to return and collect it.
The crocodile believed him. He turned around and swam back.
As soon as they reached the tree, the monkey leapt from the crocodile's back and scrambled into the highest branches. Only then did the crocodile understand. A monkey cannot take out his heart and leave it hanging in a tree.
The crocodile had been tricked. But he had also learned something harder. When he agreed to betray his friend, he had lost something that clever words could not easily bring back.
