The reason why...

Did you ever wonder why the baboon is always scratching himself and the tortoise is always looking droopy? Well, here is an ancient African tale to tell you why

Once upon a time, the baboon and the tortoise were good friends. They both would sneak into farms and help themselves to juicy ripe figs, much to the annoyance of the farmers. The duo would often get shot at or caught in traps. Hence, they decided to grow their own fig trees. While the tortoise tended to his sapling, the baboon, being a lazy fellow, neglected his. Soon the tortoise’s tree grew big and healthy and started yielding fruits. The clever monkey waited for the fruits to ripen before he offered to pluck the ripe figs from the tree and throw them down to the animal that could not climb trees. The tortoise agreed and the baboon ran up the branches with alacrity. High up there, he ate all he could and scampered down.
“Hey, dumbo, the figs aren’t ripe as yet,” he called out airily as he ran off.

 The poor tortoise was sad. He was hungry too. He knew the monkey was not being honest but he could do nothing about it. A few days later though he had a chance to get even with the cunning monkey.

When the baboon came around to check if more figs had ripened, he heard a low humming sound from the tree top.

“Dear friend, what is that sound I hear from the tree top?” he asked the tortoise.
“Well, there is a church up there; what you hear is the peal of its bell. Take a stick, push it in through its doors and shake it violently. You will then hear the music loud and clear,” suggested the tortoise as he looked up at a beehive high up on the tree.

The baboon, greedy to eat the figs, picked up a stick, climbed up and did as his friend had suggested. And just as the tortoise had hoped for, a huge swarm of furious bees stung the stupid baboon till he made a dash for a pool of water. He remained there till the bees went away. Then slowly he crawled out and started pulling out the bee stings. His face and rump had turned red; his skin itchy and his eyes swollen. His friend came up to him to give him yet another suggestion.
“There are some ripe mangoes up that tree. Pluck a few and enjoy them. You deserve a good meal after what you just went through.”

The baboon couldn’t see very well through his swollen eyes. But the thought of eating ripe sweet mangoes made his mouth water. He climbed up the tree the tortoise had pointed to and pulled at what he thought were ripe mangoes. They were in fact wasp nests and the angry residents came out to sting the fool that had disturbed them. The poor baboon did not have the strength to flee. The wasps stung him till they could no more and they flew away. After a long while the baboon came down. The tortoise was waiting for him.

“Oh dear me! What those nasty fellows have done to you! Poor thing, you are red, itchy and hungry. I saw a cricket crawling into that hole in the tree trunk. Put your hand in and catch him. I know you love to eat insects!”

The baboon did as he was told. He screamed in pain as a snake inside the hole bit him. The poor baboon had enough. He sat by the pool in the sunshine and carefully pulled out all the stings left behind by the bees and wasps. He couldn’t stop scratching himself.

As for the tortoise, he felt sad. He was sorry he never got to eat ripe figs, and the sweet revenge he had on the crafty baboon didn’t make him happy either.
That’s why till today baboons keep scratching themselves and tortoises never smile.