Story: The Man and his Wife

Based on Tibetan Folk Tales: The Man and the Monkeys by A.L. Shelton with illustrations by Mildred Bryant (1925)

A Cop and Lamborghini by Richard Masoner

There once was a man who won the lottery. He would no longer have to work, no longer have to cook or clean up after himself, and could buy anything he wanted. One day, the man fell asleep in his large and comfortable memory foam bed. While he was asleep, a burglar came into his home in order to hold the man hostage for ransom. His maid saw what had happened when she showed up to work the next morning, but she wasn't strong enough to fight back for him. She decided to go to the at home gym upstairs and work out until she was strong enough to fight the burglar. She drank protein shakes and constantly weighed herself in order to see how much muscle she was gaining. Finally, she was strong enough to fight back and save the man. He was quite shaken up after being freed, and the maid suggested a good workout in order to relieve some stress. After working out, the man was very tired and laid down to rest on the hard floor of his gym. Meanwhile, the maid was in the kitchen making them protein shakes with the blender. The blender was so loud and annoying, and the man thought it would be much easier to relax without the maid making so much noise. He thought to himself, I should just fire this maid and have my girlfriend move in with me. So, when the maid left for the day he texted her and told her she was fired... knowing that without the money he paid her, she would be unable to provide for her own family. He was happy with his decision and went to go and get his girlfriend in his bright red Lamborghini. Little did he know, the neighbor of the maid was a police officer who dearly loved the sweet maid next door, as she looked after his children when he worked late shifts. When the cop saw the man in the Lamborghini, he pulled him over for speeding, driving while under the influence, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer. The man was thrown into jail for the rest of his life.

Authors Note: This was one of my favorite stories from the Tibetan folk tales, and so I decided to completely change it up. Instead of a man finding the garden of Eden and killing monkeys that helped him, I decided to try and modernize the story to reflect a rich man who is punished for being a back stabber to the person who rescued him. In the original story, the man is eaten by the monkey king that is turned into a snake, but as you can imagine I didn't think that ending matched with my revised story.