Every night Mousedeer liked to go to Mr. Tani’s garden and eat his vegetables. Mr. Tani was very angry to see his vegetables
disappearing. So one night he put a trap in his garden with some food inside it, to catch Mousedeer. Poor Mousedeer!
The next night Mousedeer got caught in the trap and he couldn’t get out. In the morning, Mr. Tani was very happy when he saw
Mousedeer in the trap.
“Look! Look! I caught Mousedeer in my trap! I will put him in this cage! We will eat him on Sunday. I will give him lots of things to eat to make him nice and fat for our meal.”
So the farmer put lots of fruit and vegetables into the cage. Poor Mousedeer was very sad.
The next day, a monkey came down from tree to look at Mousedeer.
“Ha, ha,” he said. “What are you doing in that cage, Mousedeer?”
“Oh, just resting,” said the Mousedeer. ”Mr. Tani is having a big party tomorrow and his house is full of visitors now so I am sleeping here. And look at all this food he has given me to eat!. He is very kind. But I don’t want anyone to steal the food when I am sleeping, so I ask Mr. Tani to lock the door outside.”
“I am hungry,” said the monkey. “Can I have some of that delicious food?”
“Yes, all right. You can open the door and come in. I want to go out for a walk. But, I don’t want anyone to steal the food from you, so I will lock the door when I go. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
When the farmer came back, he was very angry to see the monkey inside the cage.
“Where is the Mousedeer? How did this monkey get into the cage?” he asked.
He was so angry, then he kicked the cage. The door opened and the monkey ran away.