STORY NO. 16a. TAUNTS PROVOKE MISTAKE
In a certain forest, there lived a sparrow and his wife with a cozy nest on the branch of a
tree. One cold ' rainy day in February, a monkey, unable to stand the cold and the rain, took shelter under the tree, his body shivering, his teeth chattering, his face woe-begone, and his hands and feet badly clenched. Only the hen sparrow was in the nest then. On seeing his miserable state, she taunted him and said : What, you fellow with face and hands and feet like a human being, why can't you construct a house, like men, instead of standing there shivering and helpless like a fool ?" The monkey got enraged. He said : "Even if I can't construct a house for myself, I can pull down this wretched woman's house,' and climbed up the tree, pulled down the nest and broke it to bits, though the hen sparrow flew away.
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