Upon trying to tackle their increasing population of monkey’s, villagers had placed rice grains inside the hollows of coconuts which were tethered to a chain. The desired result was that the monkeys would then trap themselves, and the villagers would then dispose of the monkeys.

In essence, the monkey’s would grab the grains of rice, and upon trying to remove their hand from the coconut hole, the monkey’s would subsequently become trapped by their own fist. Since the hole was just big enough so that the monkey can put his hand in, and too small for his fist to come out after it has grabbed the rice, the monkey’s ended up trapping themselves. Rather than letting the grains of rice go and escaping, they chose instead the rice to their own peril.

道理是好的，如果是企业培训，则是教育人们不要仅仅被眼前的蝇头小利蒙蔽了双眼，如果是大师讲禅，则是告诉人们要放下贪婪，有舍才有得。

但我对这个故事本身的真实性表示严重怀疑，猴子在我心中的形象一直是很聪明的，google 了半天，都没找到一点有说服力的材料。

先姑且认为这个只是一个寓言吧，类似于“温水煮青蛙”一样广为流传但真实性不能保证的寓言。很多书中都喜欢使用这类的东西，作为辅助其论点的依据。读到这种书时本来是如沐春风，但是一看到这样的段落就会觉得很恶心。本来作者的论点用生活中的例子都可以证明，却非得来这么一下，简直得不偿失。