One day, a little monkey felt that summer was too hot; the heat was so intense that he could hardly catch his breath. So he walked far away from home to a small pond, wanting to take a nice, refreshing cool bath. Suddenly, he noticed many young sugarcane shoots growing beside the pond. The monkey became very curious and thought to himself, "If only I had sugarcane at home, I could eat it there to cool down, and I wouldn't have to run all the way here for a bath."
After thinking this, he decided to dig up all the sugarcane shoots completely and plant them in his own yard. But after digging up just one shoot, he realized that it would take far too long to dig up all the shoots—this method would take many days.
So the monkey came up with a clever idea. He called over the other small animals, telling them he was sick and wanted to eat sugarcane, and asked them to help dig up the shoots. He promised them that once the sugarcane matured, he would give them some. The small animals began working hard to help the monkey. The little mole burrowed underground to loosen the soil, the little bear pulled up the shoots, and Grandma Elephant was in charge of transporting them.
Meanwhile, the monkey did nothing at all, just waited for the other animals to do the work, and occasionally stood by criticizing and giving unwanted advice.
Once all the sugarcane shoots were dug up, the monkey told the others to plant them in his yard so it would be more convenient for him to eat them later.
The small animals followed the monkey's instructions, planted the sugarcane in his yard, and then went home, waiting for the monkey to tell them when the sugarcane was ready. But day after day passed, and the helpful animals assumed the sugarcane hadn't ripened yet. Then, after another month had gone by, the animals grew impatient. The mole went to the little bear's house, and together they went to see Grandma Elephant. She said, "I'm not very mobile, so when you go, please bring some back for me." So the mole and the little bear went to see the monkey and found that the sugarcane in his yard had grown twenty feet tall, and the monkey was happily eating it.
At that moment, the mole and the little bear walked up and asked, "Where is our sugarcane?" The monkey saw them, became annoyed, and used a sickle to chop off one stalk. "Here it is—this is for you," he said. The little bear and the mole were very angry, thinking this was unfair, and began arguing with the monkey. The monkey chopped off two more stalks with his sickle and said, "You've said so much just to get a few more stalks, haven't you?" The mole and the little bear retorted indignantly, "We don't even want your sugarcane! We helped you because you were sick!"
Angry, the mole and the little bear went back home. A few days later, a heavy storm blew all the sugarcane from the monkey's yard into a huge pile, blocking his door so completely that he couldn't even get out to ask for help. By this time, the monkey had grown so fat from eating sugarcane that he couldn't climb trees anymore. Regretfully, the monkey said, "From now on, I'll never be like this again. If you don't share good things with others, you not only damage your friendships, but you end up harming yourself too."