One day a monkey in a tree watched while the woodcutters worked.
When the woodcutters went to eat their lunch, he jumped down on the log where they were using wedges to split the wood.
"Why did they put this thing here?" he wondered. Monkeys are curious creatures, and this monkey was more curious than most.
So, the monkey grabbed the wedge and pulled it out... and then the log snapped shut on his privates! He was trapped, and it was all because of his own foolishness.
Learn from the monkey: do not meddle in things you know nothing about.
Inspired by: The Panchatantra, translated by Arthur Ryder. It is in Book 1, Story 2.
Notes: The story is also in Bidpai. There is a similar Aesop's fable about a monkey who gets trapped in a fishing net: The Ape and the Fisherman.
Here is an illustration by E. Boyd Smith:
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