The Monkey and the Wedge - Panchatantra Stories in English

A group of builders were hired to construct a temple near a town. They had gathered a lot of wood from the nearby forest and were working hard to shape them into pillars and beams. Every day, they would leave their tools and materials at the site and go to the town for lunch. One day, a builder was splitting a log in half, but he had not finished when it was time to eat. He inserted a wedge into the crack to prevent the log from closing up and went away.

Soon after, a troop of monkeys arrived at the site. They were curious and playful, and they started to explore the place. One of them was especially naughty and he liked to mess with everything he saw. The leader of the monkeys warned him not to touch anything, but he did not listen. He soon spotted the log with the wedge and decided to pull it out. He did not notice that his tail was caught in the crack as he tugged at the wedge. He finally managed to yank it out, but then the log snapped shut and trapped his tail. He howled in pain and tried to free himself.

The builders came back and saw the monkey in trouble. One of them approached him to help, but the monkey was scared and ran away. As he ran, his tail broke off and he was left with a stump. The other monkeys saw this and laughed at him for his foolishness.

Moral of the Story
From this story we learn that we should not tamper with the work of others.