The Boy and the Filberts
Encyclopedia
The Boy and the Filberts is a fable
related to greed and appears as Aarne-Thompson type 68A. The story is credited to Aesop
but there is no evidence to support this. It is not included in either the Perry Index
or in Laura Gibbs' inclusive collection (2002).
Stoic
philosopher
Epictetus
(AD 55 – AD 135) briefly mentions the fable in his Discourses
as an analogy of man's getting less as a result of believing he needs more. The earliest English appearance of the story is in Grey's The Complete Fabulist (1732), where it is credited to Epictetus. In this version, a boy puts his hand into a pitcher of figs and filberts
and grasps so many that he cannot withdraw his fist through the narrow opening. When he bursts into tears of frustration, 'an honest fellow who stood by' advises him to take only half the quantity. The moral Robert Dodsley
gives in his very similar 1765 version is that 'the surest way to gain our ends is to moderate our desires'. Another early appearance was in Old Friends in a New Dress, a popular collection of verse written specially for children by Richard Scrafton Sharpe, which was originally published in 1807. The moral drawn here is that learning comes only with application - 'True wisdom is not learned at once'. The fable later appeared as Aesop's in other 19th century collections and also found its way to the USA.
recounts the fable as a teaching story in his Tales of the Dervishes
where it is cherries in a jar are used to trap the monkey. The emphasis in this tale is on the irony and economy of the trap: "The monkey was free, but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle, but he still had them." Shah credits the story to Khwaja Ali Ramitani, who died in 1306, saying that it is also found in the more recent Book of Amu Daria. Accounts of a similar practice began to circulate in English in Victorian times. It involves placing some food in a coconut or other container which then traps the animal since it will not unclench its fist. This is the origin of the modern idiom of 'a monkey trap', used of a clever trap of any sort that owes its success to the ineptitude or gullibility of the victim. It also underlies the Brazilian proverb Macaco velho não mete a mão em cumbuca (An old monkey will not stick his hand into a jar), with the meaning that an experienced hand cannot be bamboozled.
There is, however, a true fable of Aesop, of undoubted ancient Greek origin, which may lie at the base of this lore. Going under the titles "The monkey elected king of the beasts" or "The Fox and the Monkey", it dwells on the animal's proverbial greed and lack of foresight.
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
related to greed and appears as Aarne-Thompson type 68A. The story is credited to Aesop
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
but there is no evidence to support this. It is not included in either the Perry Index
Perry Index
The Perry Index is a widely-used index of "Aesop's Fables" or "Aesopica", the fables credited to Aesop, the story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BC...
or in Laura Gibbs' inclusive collection (2002).
The story
The GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
Stoic
Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...
philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
(AD 55 – AD 135) briefly mentions the fable in his Discourses
Discourses of Epictetus
The Discourses of Epictetus are a series of extracts of the teachings of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus written down by Arrian c. 108 AD. There were originally eight books, but only four now remain in their entirety, along with a few fragments of the others...
as an analogy of man's getting less as a result of believing he needs more. The earliest English appearance of the story is in Grey's The Complete Fabulist (1732), where it is credited to Epictetus. In this version, a boy puts his hand into a pitcher of figs and filberts
Hazelnut
A hazelnut is the nut of the hazel and is also known as a cob nut or filbert nut according to species. A cob is roughly spherical to oval, about 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm in diameter, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a smooth shell. A filbert is more elongated, being about twice...
and grasps so many that he cannot withdraw his fist through the narrow opening. When he bursts into tears of frustration, 'an honest fellow who stood by' advises him to take only half the quantity. The moral Robert Dodsley
Robert Dodsley
Robert Dodsley was an English bookseller and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where his father was master of the free school....
gives in his very similar 1765 version is that 'the surest way to gain our ends is to moderate our desires'. Another early appearance was in Old Friends in a New Dress, a popular collection of verse written specially for children by Richard Scrafton Sharpe, which was originally published in 1807. The moral drawn here is that learning comes only with application - 'True wisdom is not learned at once'. The fable later appeared as Aesop's in other 19th century collections and also found its way to the USA.
Variants
The tale is related to the traditional story of how to catch a monkey. Idries ShahIdries Shah
Idries Shah , also known as Idris Shah, né Sayed Idries el-Hashimi , was an author and teacher in the Sufi tradition who wrote over three dozen critically acclaimed books on topics ranging from psychology and spirituality to travelogues and culture studies.Born in India, the descendant of a...
recounts the fable as a teaching story in his Tales of the Dervishes
Tales of the Dervishes
Tales of the Dervishes was first published in 1967. Together with The Exploits of Mulla Nasrudin,published the year before, it represented the first of several books of practical Sufi instructional materialsto be released by Idries Shah....
where it is cherries in a jar are used to trap the monkey. The emphasis in this tale is on the irony and economy of the trap: "The monkey was free, but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle, but he still had them." Shah credits the story to Khwaja Ali Ramitani, who died in 1306, saying that it is also found in the more recent Book of Amu Daria. Accounts of a similar practice began to circulate in English in Victorian times. It involves placing some food in a coconut or other container which then traps the animal since it will not unclench its fist. This is the origin of the modern idiom of 'a monkey trap', used of a clever trap of any sort that owes its success to the ineptitude or gullibility of the victim. It also underlies the Brazilian proverb Macaco velho não mete a mão em cumbuca (An old monkey will not stick his hand into a jar), with the meaning that an experienced hand cannot be bamboozled.
There is, however, a true fable of Aesop, of undoubted ancient Greek origin, which may lie at the base of this lore. Going under the titles "The monkey elected king of the beasts" or "The Fox and the Monkey", it dwells on the animal's proverbial greed and lack of foresight.
- A Monkey once danced in an assembly of the Beasts and so pleased them all by his performance that they elected him their King. A Fox, envying him the honour, discovered a piece of meat lying in a trap, and leading the Monkey to the place where it was, said that she had found a store, but had not used it; she had kept it for him as treasure trove of his kingdom and counseled him to lay hold of it. The Monkey approached carelessly and was caught in the trap; and on his accusing the Fox of purposely leading him into the snare, she replied, "O Monkey, and are you, with such a mind as yours, going to be King over the Beasts?"