Once upon a time, lived a princess and her prince, on their vast piece of land. With them in their palace, lived hundreds of guards, servants, and courtiers to cater to their every needs. Next to their palace was a preparatory school. Many students would come to the palace to tour and hopefully prepare them for a life like the princess and the princes'. The princess and prince loved having an open landscape so they could get to know the students.
On one sunny day, the prince and princess went for a lovely stroll along the pond that resided near the palace. As they were used to students often being around the palace, the princess told her courtiers to make sure her valuables were kept safe. The princess had her favorite pair of slippers that were her most important possession. They were a pair of beautiful pearl white slippers with a single pearl at the tip of the shoe.
Monet was a student at the prep school. She always felt like she did not fit in as she attended the school on a scholarship. All her friends went to the other school in the village and she was upset to be away from them. Monet was in her rebellious stage at this point as she always was angry at the world. Monet devised a plan to get "kicked out" of the prep school. She would wait for the courtiers to get distracted with another task and steal the princess’s special slippers.
The courtier in charge of watching the slippers slipped out of the princess's room for a moment and Monet knew this was her time to go in and take them... so she did. Once they were in her possession, she snuck out of the palace, drawing next to no attention to herself.
Upon returning to her quarters, the princess immediately noticed her slippers were missing. The prince went to the head guard and demanded he find who stole the slippers. As the guard could not simply just search through every house in the palace, the guard devised a plan to catch the thief. He knew it was a student who took them, but he needed to come up with a plan that would draw a majority of the students in. He decided he would have the princess pick some shoes to donate and have a shoe show for students to come and get some fancy shoes.
On the day of the shoe show, the guard watched as all of the female students came to see the shoes. All the females except one, Monet. Seeing Monet sitting alone with no interest and her eyes caught on something else, the guard approached only to find that the princess's slippers were in Monet's bag. The guard took Monet to the prince where the prince took the slippers back and dismissed her from the school. Monet got what she wanted and instantly her mood changed for the better as she ran towards her friends and her new, old life.
Author's Note: This is my adaptation of one of Ellen Babbitt's Jataka Tales, The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls. In the original story, the girl monkey steals the queen's string of pearls when the servant falls asleep while on watch duty. The king demands the guard find who stole the pearls and he hatched a plan. He strung colored beads on a tree and all the monkey's went to get some except the girl monkey who already had a string of pearls. The guard catch the girl monkey showing the pearls to one of the other monkeys and took her to the king. The original story ends with the king being grateful for the guards creativity in finding a way to detect the thief. In my version, I was inspired by a different setting with fairytale kind of characters. As I have a fascination with karmic actions, I decided to write the story with Monet getting the happy ending she wanted while also having to face a consequence that she did not really care about, i.e. getting kicked out of the school.
Bibliography. "The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls" by Ellen C. Babbitt. Website: More Jataka Tales
On one sunny day, the prince and princess went for a lovely stroll along the pond that resided near the palace. As they were used to students often being around the palace, the princess told her courtiers to make sure her valuables were kept safe. The princess had her favorite pair of slippers that were her most important possession. They were a pair of beautiful pearl white slippers with a single pearl at the tip of the shoe.
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| (The princess's favorite pair of while slippers; Source: pxhere) |
Monet was a student at the prep school. She always felt like she did not fit in as she attended the school on a scholarship. All her friends went to the other school in the village and she was upset to be away from them. Monet was in her rebellious stage at this point as she always was angry at the world. Monet devised a plan to get "kicked out" of the prep school. She would wait for the courtiers to get distracted with another task and steal the princess’s special slippers.
The courtier in charge of watching the slippers slipped out of the princess's room for a moment and Monet knew this was her time to go in and take them... so she did. Once they were in her possession, she snuck out of the palace, drawing next to no attention to herself.
Upon returning to her quarters, the princess immediately noticed her slippers were missing. The prince went to the head guard and demanded he find who stole the slippers. As the guard could not simply just search through every house in the palace, the guard devised a plan to catch the thief. He knew it was a student who took them, but he needed to come up with a plan that would draw a majority of the students in. He decided he would have the princess pick some shoes to donate and have a shoe show for students to come and get some fancy shoes.
On the day of the shoe show, the guard watched as all of the female students came to see the shoes. All the females except one, Monet. Seeing Monet sitting alone with no interest and her eyes caught on something else, the guard approached only to find that the princess's slippers were in Monet's bag. The guard took Monet to the prince where the prince took the slippers back and dismissed her from the school. Monet got what she wanted and instantly her mood changed for the better as she ran towards her friends and her new, old life.
Author's Note: This is my adaptation of one of Ellen Babbitt's Jataka Tales, The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls. In the original story, the girl monkey steals the queen's string of pearls when the servant falls asleep while on watch duty. The king demands the guard find who stole the pearls and he hatched a plan. He strung colored beads on a tree and all the monkey's went to get some except the girl monkey who already had a string of pearls. The guard catch the girl monkey showing the pearls to one of the other monkeys and took her to the king. The original story ends with the king being grateful for the guards creativity in finding a way to detect the thief. In my version, I was inspired by a different setting with fairytale kind of characters. As I have a fascination with karmic actions, I decided to write the story with Monet getting the happy ending she wanted while also having to face a consequence that she did not really care about, i.e. getting kicked out of the school.
Bibliography. "The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls" by Ellen C. Babbitt. Website: More Jataka Tales
I LOVE Disney!! So, I love princesses. Your story really hooked me at the beginning I felt like the magical storybook was opening and I was ready for my fairytale! I was not expecting it to be about a school. So, that was a surprise! That Monet is pretty ballsy. I feel like there is a better way for her to try to get kicked out of school. This is a weird moral though. It is saying to steal and everything will be ok. It may be better for karma to get her.
ReplyDeleteLindsey,
ReplyDeleteI love reading princess stories and fairy tales so I really enjoyed reading this story! I know it wasn't exactly a typical fairy tale, it definitely gave me Princess Diaries vibes, which is one of my favorite books/ movies. I think your story had a good twist and does a good job of teaching a lesson, especially to young readers. I really enjoyed this story and if your other stories have a similar theme, I think I would really enjoy reading them! Great job!
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ReplyDeleteHi Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your story– I like reading these types of interpretations on folk tales. I noticed that there were a lot of stories about princes in the Jataka Tales, but not very many about princesses, so it was nice to see someone bring one of my favorite folk tale tropes to the Jataka Tales. It goes in a much different direction than most princess stories, which gave it a very unique feel!