Honesty is a great value and a praiseworthy trait that we should all adorn ourselves with, especially when accompanied by a promise and good intention from another person. If we are honest in someone’s promise to us, we must do the same and not betray, for betrayal is deeply harmful, especially to those who have given us security and safety.
One day the turtle Fūrī was standing on the bank of the river. As was her custom, Fūrī would wake early, swim, and praise her Lord for the blessing of health and ask for her provision from her Creator. On this day, Fūrī was standing on the riverbank and resolved to descend into it in search of some food and to play with her friends.
The turtle Fūrī had a friend of another kind. The mischievous monkey was always moving among the trees, and he would see her descending into the water with grace every day, while he could not swim, which prevented him from crossing to the other side of the river.
On this day the mischievous monkey decided to ask the turtle for something. He greeted her and asked her to carry him on her back and cross him to the other side of the river, for he could not go to the other side because he did not know how to swim, whereas she could. The kind turtle Fūrī agreed to help him and offer him aid.
The next day, before the turtle Fūrī descended to the river, she stood waiting for the mischievous monkey until he arrived. She welcomed him, carried him on her back, and descended with him into the river water. The mischievous monkey had prepared a plan to betray the turtle Fūrī. He had no intention of crossing to the other side of the river; rather, he knew that when monkeys ate turtles, they became more energetic compared to eating bananas.
Out of the mischievous monkey’s ill intention, when he and the turtle Fūrī were halfway across, he feared that she would actually cross him to the other side of the river and he would be stuck there. So he tried to tip the turtle onto her back and jump with her after drowning her, to one of the nearby bushes, to devour her alone.
But the turtle Fūrī realized what the monkey intended as he began to squirm on her back. She asked him sorrowfully why he did not appreciate her help for him, and that she had indeed been sincere in her promise to him and would cross him to the other side. He answered that he had coveted eating her flesh for more energy and activity. The turtle Fūrī apologized to him and told him after she had covered a great distance toward the other side of the river, where there were no bushes in that area. She told the mischievous monkey that she would not complete the journey, then dived into the river water to disappear beneath it, and the mischievous monkey drowned as punishment for what he had done to her and for not keeping his promise or being truthful in his speech.