A man who made a living by selling hats once happened to pass through a forest.
After walking for a while, he became exhausted and overheated from the sun, so he sat down under a tree. He put his basket full of hats on the ground beside him and fell asleep.
A few hours later, the man woke up to strange noises. To his surprise, the basket next to him was completely empty… The hats were gone! He looked up at the tree and saw that its branches were full of monkeys—each one wearing one of his hats.
The man began to think: "What am I going to do now? How can I get my hats back from these monkeys?" While scratching his head in deep thought, he noticed the monkeys imitating him, scratching their heads too. The man raised his hands in the air, and the monkeys did the same… Then the man had an idea: he took off the hat he was wearing and threw it on the ground. The monkeys immediately took off their hats and tossed them down as well. The man gathered all the hats, put them back in his basket, and continued on his way.
Fifty years passed… The man now had a grandson who, like his grandfather, became a hat seller. One day, the young man's path led him to the very same forest. The weather was just as hot, and he sat under a tree, placed his basket of hats beside him, and fell asleep…
An hour later, he woke up to find the basket empty. Then he heard strange noises, looked up, and saw the tree full of monkeys—each one wearing a hat. He thought to himself: "My grandfather once told me a story… I know exactly what to do!"
The young man began scratching his head, and the monkeys copied him. He raised his hands in the air, and the monkeys copied that too… Smiling confidently, he took off his own hat and threw it on the ground.
At that moment, one of the monkeys climbed down, grabbed the hat he had thrown, slapped him across the face, and said:
"You think only you have a grandfather, huh, you fool?"
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