The monkey learns to weave

a story from Syria......

A man who had a monkey wanted to train it to weave at the loom. But even when the man beat it, the monkey refused to learn.

One day the man brought one of his sheep to the loom and, while the monkey watched, pretended that he was trying to teach it to weave. The sheep, of course, did nothing but bleat, which made the monkey laugh. The man drew out his knife and said to the sheep, “if you do not learn, I swear by your young lambs that I shall kill you!” The sheep continued to do nothing but bleat. And then the man did kill it.

At the sight of the blood, the monkey jumped into the pit of the loom and began to toss the shuttle to and fro as fast as he could go. Hence the saying, “Kill the sheep and the monkey will learn to weave.”