The Boy and the Filberts is a fable related to greed and appears as Aarne-Thompson type 68A.[1] The story is credited to Aesop but there is no evidence to support this. It is not included in either the Perry Index or in Laura Gibbs' inclusive collection (2002).[2]
The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus (AD 55 – AD 135) briefly mentions the fable in his Discourses as an analogy of man's getting less as a result of believing he needs more.[3] The earliest English appearance of the story is in Grey's The Complete Fabulist (1732),[4] where it is credited to Epictetus. In this version, a boy puts his hand into a pitcher of figs and filberts and grasps so many that he cannot withdraw his fist through the narrow opening. When he bursts into tears of frustration, 'an honest fellow who stood by' advises him to take only half the quantity. The moral Robert Dodsley gives in his very similar 1765 version [5] is that 'the surest way to gain our ends is to moderate our desires'. Another early appearance was in Old Friends in a New Dress, a popular collection of verse written specially for children by Richard Scrafton Sharpe, which was originally published in 1807. The moral drawn here is that learning comes only with application - 'True wisdom is not learned at once'.[6] The fable later appeared as Aesop's in other 19th century collections and also found its way to the USA.[7]
The tale is related to the traditional story of how to catch a monkey. Idries Shah recounts the fable as a teaching story in his Tales of the Dervishes where it is cherries in a jar are used to trap the monkey.[8] The emphasis in this tale is on the irony and economy of the trap: "The monkey was free, but he was captured. The hunter had used the cherry and the bottle, but he still had them." Shah credits the story to Khwaja Ali Ramitani, who died in 1306, saying that it is also found in the more recent Book of Amu Daria. Accounts of a similar practice began to circulate in English in Victorian times. It involves placing some food in a coconut or other container which then traps the animal since it will not unclench its fist.[9] This is the origin of the modern idiom of 'a monkey trap', used of a clever trap of any sort that owes its success to the ineptitude or gullibility of the victim.[10] It also underlies the Brazilian proverb Macaco velho não mete a mão em cumbuca (An old monkey will not stick his hand into a jar), with the meaning that an experienced hand cannot be bamboozled.[11]
There is, however, a true fable of Aesop, of undoubted ancient Greek origin, which may lie at the base of this lore. Going under the titles "The monkey elected king of the beasts" or "The Fox and the Monkey", it dwells on the animal's proverbial greed and lack of foresight.