Peaceful monk(ey)s and the dangerous man

A lonely gentle man, injured and hungry, was with a group of monkeys in a jungle. The monkeys were worried. “I think the man is very dangerous. Right now, he is weak, but when he gets strong, he will kill us all”, said the older ones.

“I have no interests in harming any of you, I just wish to gather some food and to recover from my injuries, peacefully”, the man rebutted.

But the monkeys weren’t convinced. “Let’s see if that’s true”, said an old and small-shaped monkey while he threw a stone at the man. The man jinked aside and the stone missed him. “Well, that doesn’t prove anything since he got away from it”, said another one, throwing a stone at the man himself too. This time, it hit him on his arm. It hurt but didn’t quite harm. 

Not interested in fighting against the monkeys, the man walked away quietly and minded his own business. The monkeys became only more nervous: “Why is he keeping himself away from us? We need more transparency to build mutual trust, or he will be definitely plotting against us!”

So a young and nimble monkey, eager to make a contribution to the community, said: “I’ll go figure it out.” He jumped right onto the man’s head and scratched.

This final move angered the man. He threw the monkey off, stood up and pulled himself in a position ready for fighting. His face was not nice, and with much anger, it could even be a bit ugly. 

All of a sudden, all the monkeys were horrified. They jumped up and down and cried: “See? I knew from the beginning that the man was a dangerous beast. Look how ugly and violent he is. He’s full of the man-ism, and was all lying to us when he said he was kind!”