The common theme in all of these stories seems to be the various forms of Buddha's reincarnations and the different lessons that he learns in each one. In this story, Buddha comes back as a monkey and gets real big and strong and is king of the monkeys. The crocodile's wife wants to eat his heart. The male crocodile caves in and says ok I'll try to get him to eat even though he lives on dry land. The crocodile then plunges him into the water and when the monkey is like hey why are you doing this the crocodile explains to him that he is going to bring his wife the monkey's heart. The monkey then tricks the crocodile into believing that he keeps his heart in a tree and makes the crocodile take him to a tree, where he promptly climbs up it and tells the crocodile that he was lying.
Crocodile looking up at the monkey after being clowned
Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock, The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart
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