Once there was a tree that grew beautiful chocolates, in shiny paper, red and blue and gold. One day a rat came along, and he saw the tree, and he wanted a chocolate more than anything. But there was a monkey who lived in the tree, and the monkey wouldn’t share the chocolates with anyone. Whenever the rat tried to sneak up the tree to take a chocolate, the monkey would throw ping-pong balls on the rat’s head and chase him down again.
The rat thought hard. Then he called up to the monkey. “Monkey, I think there’s a problem with your tree.”
“Oh?” said the monkey, juggling ping-pong balls. “What might that be?”
“I think it’s putting on weight,” the rat said. “It must be all that chocolate.”
“So?” said the monkey.
“So if it gets too heavy, it will topple over and you’ll fall out, and all the chocolates will be squashed on the ground,” said the rat.
The monkey didn’t like the sound of that. “What should I do?” he asked anxiously.
“Don’t worry,” said the rat. “I’ll just nibble away a bit of the tree trunk here, and it will be thinner again.”
“Whatever,” said the monkey. He was very careless.
The rat chewed away some of the trunk of the tree. The next day he was back at the same time. He looked at the tree and shook his head. “Oh dear. It isn’t getting any thinner. Maybe I should nibble a bit more.”
“Whatever,” said the monkey carelessly. He was gargling lemonade and watching the bubbles pop.
Every day the rat came back and chewed at the trunk of the tree. At the end of the week, the tree started to sway and crack.
“Whoa! What’s happening?” said the monkey.
“Aha! I have chewed halfway through the trunk of the tree,” said the rat. “With one more bite, it will snap right through and fall over, and then I can have all the chocolate I want.”
“No, no, no!” shouted the monkey. “You stupid rat! Don’t you realise that if the tree dies, there will be no more chocolate?”
“What? No more chocolate?” said the rat.
“No more chocolate,” said the monkey, “not ever. Do something, quick! I can feel the tree shaking. It could fall down at any minute.”
The rat said, “Why should I care? I don’t get any chocolate now. If the tree dies, you’ll be the one who suffers, not me.”
“Rat, rat, rat! If there’s no more chocolate, everyone suffers. But listen, if you help me save the tree, I’ll share the chocolates with you,” said the monkey.
“You’ll share the chocolates with me? And my friends?” said the rat.
“Yes, I’ll share with your friends too. Now run off on your little rat feet and get a long tree bandage,” said the monkey.
The rat ran and got a bandage, and the monkey wrapped it very carefully around the tree. The rat brought a little bucket of water and watered the tree twice a day, until the trunk grew back thick and strong again.
And the monkey, who might have been careless but wasn’t stupid, threw down exactly four chocolates a day, enough to keep the rat and his friends contented, and everyone was happy.
A Wombat Named Benson 