Afraid of the monkey

Once upon a time there was a monkey, a little one, smaller than a chimpanzee. It was a performing monkey, the kind that does acrobatics to draw a crowd, and its owner had taught it to pick pockets. Whenever people gathered to watch, the monkey robbed them when they weren't looking.

One day there was a young boy who worked all day in a bakery, carrying dough to the hot oven and then taking out the hot bread that burned his fingers to serve the customers.

His pay was small, but it was enough to buy some milk for his little brother and some cheese for himself and his sister.

One day, after work, the boy walked down the street where the monkey was doing its tricks and leaps for a crowd of amazed onlookers. He stopped for a moment to see what was going on. At that moment the monkey jumped about, and suddenly its hand was in the boy's pocket, pulling out a single small coin. But that coin was very precious, as precious as a piece of your own heart.

The boy quickly grabbed the hand that was trying to take the money he had earned that day, the money for his food. People saw what happened, and so did the monkey's owner, who shouted, laughing: "Ha ha ha… what a funny monkey! It loves shiny things." And the people laughed with him.

But the boy didn't let go of the monkey's hand: his precious coin was still in it. The monkey started to scream and wriggle, and it looked to everyone as if the boy was about to break its hand. The owner called on the crowd's chivalry to save his poor, funny monkey from the cruel boy who was about to break its hand. The crowd felt sorry for the suffering monkey and surrounded the boy, demanding that he set it free and let it have the worthless coin.

True, the coin wasn't theirs. True, the monkey was a performer, trained to act and leap about. And true, the boy worked all day to feed himself and his brother and sister. But none of that mattered to anyone that day. They shouted at the boy, prodded him, kicked him and scolded him: "How can you lower yourself to a monkey's level?"

What do you think the boy will do? Give up his livelihood because people demand it, or feel guilty for keeping a coin he didn't give to a needy monkey?

It's a hard question I hear all the time: it asks me to stand by my opinion and do the right thing even if others don't like it, even if people crowd in on me and harass me.

I'm not sure…

Personally, I don't dare stand against the crowd. But I think you are braver than me.