The Monkey and the Bear
Once upon a time, in the heart of a deep forest shaded by huge plane trees, there lived a lovely mother monkey. One fine day the twin babies of this monkey came into the world. The mother monkey cherished one of her babies with pure admiration, yet for some reason she constantly neglected the other. She pressed the baby she cherished to her breast, trembled over him and, to guard him from every danger, she hardly let him even breathe. The neglected, unlucky baby, on the other hand, learned to fend for himself and to cling to the branches by his own strength. When the seasons changed in the forest and the wind began to blow harshly, the mother monkey increased her protective manner even more. One day a loud sound suddenly echoed and the dwellers of the forest were seized by a great panic.
The mother, who sensed that danger was drawing near, took into her arms the darling she guarded like her own eye and pressed him tightly to her chest. The despised other baby, at his mother's scream, quickly climbed onto her back and held fast to her fur. "I will never let you go, my dear little one," whispered the mother monkey, and she began to run. As she leapt from branch to branch in terror, she pressed the baby in her arms to her chest with even greater fury, so that he would not be crushed. "Mother, loosen your arms a little, I cannot breathe," groaned the tiny baby in her arms. But the over-anxious mother did not hear this feeble wail of her baby and wrapped him even more strongly. The neglected baby on her back, on the other hand, learned to resist the wind and adapted to his mother's movements.
When the mother monkey at last got away from the dangerous area and stopped in a safe cave, she drew a deep breath. When she lovingly turned her eyes to the pampered baby in her arms, she came face to face with a bitter truth. She understood that her one and only baby, whom out of a passion to protect she had pressed to her chest until he was left breathless, had died. While she wailed in tears, the neglected baby on her back dropped into her arms and tried to comfort her. Crushed with grief, she grasped that excessive protectiveness and groundless pampering do the greatest harm. Uncontrolled and excessive love sometimes does the greatest harm to the very life it wants to guard. The eye we guard the most is the eye the dust finds first.