Original picture for Storynory by Tania Fernandes.

The adventures of Theo the Monkey take a new turn as he determines to break out of the zoo and take up the fight for what is right in the City.

Mr. Grabber, the keeper of the monkeys cage, has a new scheme which on the face of it seems to be in a good cause. When Theo digs deeper, he finds that Mr. Grabber and his girlfriend are up to their usual criminal tricks.

Read by Natasha. Story by Bertie. Picture by Tania Fernandes . Sponsored byAudible. Duration 13.51.

Hello, this is Natasha, and I’m dropping by with a story about Theo the Monkey. You may remember that Theo’s arch enemy is Mr. Grabber, the zookeeper who is always up to some criminal schemes. Theo believes in justice and is infuriated that Mr. Grabber always seems to get away with his crimes. In this story, Theo decides that he must take up the fight for what is right.

One evening, after the zoo was closed, Mr. Grabber, the keeper of the monkeys, opened the door to the cage.

“Which of you hairy gang would like some banana ice cream?” he called out.

“Oooh, ah ah aha!” replied the nearest half-a-dozen monkeys who had heard him.

“Well swing on out of the cage and work for your keep,” said Mr. Grabber.

Theo was among the monkeys who reported for duty in a line outside the cage. He wondered what criminal scheme Mr. Grabber would have up his sleeve this time. But that evening, the keeper’s aim seemed surprisingly public spirited. He ordered them to pick up litter and to put it into black bin bags, and whenever they found an old entrance ticket to the zoo, to put it into a special green bag to be recycled. And he promised that he would exchange banana ice cream for full bags of litter.

The monkeys understood perfectly well what to do, and soon they were hopping around the zoo, trailing litter bags behind them, some black, some green. Sometimes one of them would try to put a crisp packet or a sandwich wrapper inside a green bag, and Mr. Grabber would yell.

“Oy, you, that monkey ! Only tickets go in the green bag.“

And while the monkeys were working, Mr. Grabber tipped full bins of litter onto the ground and told them to sort out the tickets from the rest of the rubbish.

After an hour and a half of litter picking, the monkeys claimed their reward, and Mr. Grabber was as good as his word. He gave each of them a big tub of yellow ice cream.

“And there will be more of that tomorrow evening,” he promised.

After dark, Theo spoke to Fucious, the most respected old monkey in their tribe.

“Oh wise one, “ he said, “What is the meaning of Mr. Grabber’s tidying and recycling? Is he a reformed man?”

The silver haired monkey scratched his head. “It is indeed very puzzling. Perhaps even a man as selfish and greedy as Mr. Grabber wishes to save the planet from a mountain of rubbish.”

The next day, the Peters family joined the queue of visitors outside the zoo. Little Jack Peters said:

“I want to see the monkeys and feed them chocolate through the bars so that they all go crazy like this,” and he did a little dance while he scratched himself under the arms.

“That’s silly,” said both his sisters, quite unamused.

When they reached the pay kiosk, Mr Peters asked to pay for two adults and three children.

“That will be £125 sir,” said the ticket seller.

“Oh dear,” said Mr. Peters. “That is rather a lot. I don’t think I have enough money on my payment card.”

“Sorry sir. The prices went up at New Year,” said the ticket seller.

“Sorry kids,” said Mr. Peters, “The zoo’s too expensive. We’ll have to go to the playground in the park. At least that’s still free.”

As the dejected family started to leave, a lady came up to them and said: “Would you like some cheap tickets to the zoo? I bought some for my family in advance, but now grandma has been taken ill and we can’t go. I’ll let you have five for 50 quid.“

Mr. Peters knew a bargain when he saw it and gladly paid.

But he didn’t know that the lady was Mr. Grabber’s girlfriend, and she was selling the recycled tickets that the monkeys had picked up. It was Mr. Grabber’s latest criminal scheme to make quick and easy money .

The plot would have gone undetected, if Theo had not been watching from the top of the cage. His sharp eyes spotted what was happening just outside the entrance to the zoo, and he understood everything.

That evening Theo tried to stop the other monkeys from helping Mr. Grabber to recycle old zoo tickets.

“Don’t do it. You are aiding and abetting a criminal scheme,” he told them.

“No we’re not. Recycling is good,” said a monkey called Janice as she hopped out of the cage to join that evening’s ice cream gang.

Once again, Theo climbed up onto the rock of the wise ones in the centre of the cage, and he consulted Fucious.

“Master, what am I to do?” he asked.

“Stay calm, be patient, watch, and wait for inspiration to tell you what to do,” advised the old monkey.

But Theo was not very good at staying calm and being patient. He was bursting with anger and fury :

“I cannot stay here and watch Mr. Grabber get away with it once again!,” he said to himself. “ I cannot stand living with this bunch of monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil even when it is taking place right in front of their noses. I must get out of here. I must escape !”

He fumed for another 24 hours until Mr. Grabber once again opened the cage and offered banana ice cream to the first six monkeys to report for litter picking duty. Theo made sure that he was first to swing out of the cage. He could smell freedom. But before he made his break for it, he quietly slipped his paw into Mr. Grabber’s coat pocket and pulled out a key. Later, when everyone else was busy picking up litter as fast as they could, he climbed up a tree that reached over the wall of the zoo.

Theo landed in the car park. He made for the red motor cycle which he knew belonged to Mr. Grabber. He hopped on board, and looked around the for the ignition. When he found it, he fumbled to get the keys into the slot.

Just then he heard a cry of

“Oy, Stop that Monkey”

Mr. Grabber was running from the zoo gate. His girlfriend opened the door of a van where she was waiting,  jumped out, and came running towards him from the other direction. She almost managed to grab hold of Theo just as motor cycle’s engine burst into life. Theo let out the clutch and the bike went shooting forward. He was accelerating like a bullet straight for Mr. Grabber who had to dive out of the way.

“Quick, get the van” called Mr. Grabber, And his girlfriend ran back to to where it was parked. Soon they were out on the street – they saw Theo shoot through some red lights, causing cars to swerve and hoot madly.

“He won’t get far like that,” said the girlfriend.

“But what about my bike? He’ll smash it up for sure.” said Mr. Grabber sadly. It was no use chasing. Theo was soon out of sight.

Theo seemed to know how to ride the bike instinctively. “I must have been a motor cyclist in a previous life,” he thought to himself gleefully, as he dodged round an oncoming police car. He could hear the wailing of sirens, but they soon faded far behind him.

As he chugged up a side road more slowly now, he saw something that filled him with anger. A woman was walking along holding the hand of a small boy, who skipped beside her, trying to avoid the cracks in the pavement. Two youths ran up behind her. One pushed her over, and the other grabbed her handbag. The boy screamed “Mummy!”. The muggers ran down the street, and they moved even faster when they heard a motor bike revving up behind them. Perhaps you can imagine the terror that one youth felt as a hairy paw grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to the ground. The motor bike skidded round. The monkey jumped off and grabbed the hand bag. A tug of war ensued, the monkey pulling one way, the youths another. A police van pulled up and six officers jumped out and slapped handcuffs on the monkey and the youths.

As the police officer helped the woman to her feet, she said :

“Officer. That monkey helped me. He was rescuing my handbag.”

“Sorry Madam. I’m afraid he’s a notorious criminal, escaped from the zoo. There’s been a call out on all police radios for him. Fits the description exactly he does.”.

‘But he’s a good monkey,” cried the boy.

But the police could not hold Theo for long. He was the Harry Houdini of monkeys. Even as the officer spoke, Theo was wiggling his hairy wrists out of the cuffs. Before a policeman could shout “Stop that Monkey! ” He was on his motor bike and racing down the street.

“Hurray! “ called the small boy. “He’s escaped!”

By the next day, pictures of Theo’s face were in all the newspapers and on all the television broadcasts. Overnight he had become by far the most notorious monkey in the country, if not the world.

He hid the motor bike in the park, because he knew that if he continued to ride it, he would run into a police road block soon or later. He hopped over the rooftops of the town, wondering what fate lay in store for him. His stomach complained bitterly of hunger. He could see a fruit store holder down at street level.

“Oooo ! those bananas and apples look so delicious,” he thought to himself. “I could just hop down and pick up some. But oh, I don’t have any money. And it’s wrong to steal. I don’t want to be a criminal like Mr. Grabber, even if the police say that’s what I am.”

But he was so hungry, that he found himself somehow drawn down to the ground, and towards the store. He stared with a starving look at the bananas.

“Hey you’re that monkey,” said the store holder.

Theo didn’t run away. He just looked at him, almost ready to give himself up for in return for some food from the prison kitchen.

“You’re the one they call the Vigilante Monkey,” went on the store holder. “You’re doing a great job. The public’s right behind you. Here, have a banana, take a whole bunch. Take two bunches.”

Theo expected a trick, and as he crept forward he was on the look out for the gleam of handcuffs, and he half thought he could hear the sound of sirens.

But there was no trick. The store holder did give him the bananas, as well as a bag of apples, and a bunch of grapes.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Sir,” he said. “Now be on your way, and mind you don’t get caught. This city needs you.”

Original picture for Storynory by Tania Fernandes. Click to enlarge.

This is another slightly crazy chocolate story and is the companion to The Monkey Who Loved Chocolate. It continues our Zoo Stories series featuring Theo the Monkey – though you have to be patient and wait a bit for Theo to enter the stage.

Read by Natasha. Duration 19.20 minutes. Story by Bertie.

It was Shrove Tuesday, otherwise known as pancake day. The City Mayor was sitting up in bed eating his breakfast: – a big pile of pancakes with black caviar and sour cream, washed down with champagne. Black caviar, in case you don’t know, is an extremely rare and expensive food – with each spoon full you eat a thousand little beady black eggs of a mighty river fish called the Sturgeon. If you tried it, you might not even like it, but the City Mayor loved caviar as much as some people love chocolate. Indeed, he was quite content, apart from the fact that he would have to give something up for the 6 weeks known as Lent which come after pancake day and run up until Easter. He pondered this, and decided to give up beetroot, because he never liked it anyway. As he took another silver-spoonful of caviar, his mobile phone rang. How he hated it when people called him while he was still at breakfast ! He was about to throw his phone out of the window when he noticed that the call was coming from the Chief Of Police.

“Oh dear,” thought the Mayor. “He probably wants to miss our card game. He always claims he’s busy fighting crime, but I know he just doesn’t like losing.”

And so he reluctantly flipped open his phone.

“His Honour the Mayor speaking,” he said in a weary voice.

“Good morning, Horace,” said the police chief. “I hope I didn’t wake you up,”

“No, no,” huffed the Mayor. “I’ve been at my desk since dawn, this great city of ours never sleeps.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have have to miss tonight’s card game. I’ve a serious crime to solve. A kidnapping.”

The Mayor smiled to himself. Another one of his excuses, he thought. But after he had wished the Police Chief better luck with his case than with cards, he closed his phone and reached for the remote control to turn on his television set to catch the news.

A red banner flashed across the bottom of the screen: “Breaking News: Kidnapping” : it said. And the Mayor thought to himself that it must be somebody important that had got him or herself kidnapped. And it was. The reporter who was standing outside some large factory gates wore her most serious face: She was saying:

“A ransom note was sent this morning to the head of the Yummy Chocolate Factory demanding 100 million pounds for the safe return of one the most loved and respected creatures who has ever hopped across the planet. ”

And the Mayor understood that it wasn’t a person, but an animal who had been kidnapped. But what sort of animal could it be that was worth 100 million pounds? Even a champion racehorse was scarcely worth such a fortune? Perhaps some old aristocratic lady with more money than sense had lost her favourite pussy cat? But why was the note sent to the head of the Chocolate Factory? He’d just have to keep listening to that reporter on the 24 Hour News Service.

“And joining me now is The President and CEO of the Yummy Chocolate Factory, Sir Percival Yummy. Sir. Percival, Easter is just around the corner. How will the Chocolate Factory cope without the services of the Easter Bunny?”

“I’m afraid the situation is very grave,” said Sir Percival. “Without the aid of the Easter Bunny, it’s simply impossible to deliver chocolate eggs to all the Children of the world all in one night. It’s a bit like Christmas without Santa Clause… it’s, it’s .. .unthinkable.”

And the Mayor thought that Sir Percival was about to cry. The reporter did not seem to notice this.

“So will you pay the 100 million pound ransom? ” she pressed him.

“No we will not,” he replied steadfastly. “It is the policy of the Yummy Chocolate Factory never to pay ransom money under any circumstances. That would simply encourage more kidnapping.”

It took a moment for the seriousness of the situation to sink into the Mayor’s brain. When it did, he leapt out of bed faster than he had done for years and ran down to his office, still in his pajamas. He turned on his computer and saw hundreds of emails downloading into his in-box. Many were from anxious parents, teachers and nannies with subjects like,

“Help, my kids are going hysterical and won’t stop crying…”

And then there was another email from the chief gardener entitled:

“So, shall we cancel the Easter Egg Hunt?”

The Easter Egg hunt took place very year in the grounds of the Mayor’s House. The Easter Bunny hid eggs behind the flowers and in the bushes, and children from all over the city came and searched for them. It was one of the most popular events of the year, and showed the Mayor as a politician with a heart, who cared for families and children. It won him lots of votes.

By now he was starting to grow angry. He picked up his red telephone and shouted “Get me the Chief of Police !” and a minute later he was again talking to his friend:

“You blithering idiot !” he cried. “Why haven’t you found that bunny yet ?”

The Chief of Police was used to his old friend’s swings of mood, and he replied calmly: “Horace, rest assured that the finest crime fighting unit in the land is on the case, and at this very moment is rounding up the usual suspects.”

And at the top of the Police Chief’s list was a name which we have come across before: it belonged to somebody who was known to go quite berserk at the merest sniff of chocolate. He lived in the city zoo, he was a monkey, and his name was Theo. If you’ve heard the story called “The Monkey Who Loved Chocolate” you will know that Theo once ate some chocolate and went completely bananas. He went on the rampage stealing chocolate all over the place. It was coming up to Easter and there was almost no chocolate left for the children of the City, but Theo calmed down eventually, and promised to be good.

His hairy face was currently staring out of the Police Chief’s computer screen. Normally his round brown eyes were cheeky but cute, but at the time his police photograph had been taken, he was startled by the flash and looked like a completely crazy ape.

“Ooh, he looks like a bad’un,” said a woman Police Officer who was passing by.

“No worries, ” said the Police Chief. “We’ll soon have him behind bars.”

But of course Theo was already living behind bars in the zoo. And much to his surprise and delight, that morning he had found a chocolate egg in his bed of straw, and he had gobbled it up and was now swinging across the roof of the cage screeching

“Ooo Ooo, Ah Ah Aha ! ”

When the police came to arrest him, his face was covered in brown chocolate, and that made him look especially guilty. The police sergeant said: “There he is. That’s the bunny snatcher – and constable, put on your white gloves and pick up all that chocolate-smudged silver foil – that’s evidence that is .”

Mr. Grabber, who was the zoo keeper in charge of the monkeys, tried and catch Theo, but it wasn’t easy because he kept swinging around the bars.

Wile this was all happening, a police dog got chatting to a bull dog whose name was Titanic. Titanic was a squat, muscular, squash-faced animal, and not the brightest canine who ever lived. His owner was Mr. Grabber, and whereever Mr. Grabber went, Titanic went too.

“Perhaps I should have been a police dog, ” said Titanic, “because I’m really good at catching things. Only yesterday, I saw a white rabbit sneaking into the monkeys’ cage and chatting to that there Theo. When he came out, I chased him into a corner by the visitor’s toilets, and I would have gobbled him up, only Mr. Grabber came along and popped him into a bag, and now he’s keeping him in a hutch behind the Llamas’ enclosure. There’s something very unusual about that rabbit, because he smells, not like he’s supposed to, but like chocolate. I hope we have him for dinner tonight, because I’d really like to try what he tastes like. ”

And when the police dog heard this, he understood that they had come to arrest an innocent monkey. Because it wasn’t Theo who had kidnapped the Easter Bunny, but Mr. Grabber and his bull dog.

Eventually, when the police threatened to shoot him with a dart that would make him go to sleep, Theo decided to come quietly. He was put under arrest, hand-cuffed, loaded into the police van, and driven away at high speed with the blue light flashing and the siren going “De De De De De De.”

When they got to the police station Theo was led into a cage. But unlike the cage at the zoo, this one was small, dark, and not very nice – because it was a police cell.

Theo screeched “Help,let me out. I’ve been framed !” But the police officers could not understand. All they heard was “EEK Ahha Ahha ! ”

An hour later the Mayor was standing on the lawn outside his office and talking to the reporter from the 24 Hour News station. He looked into the TV camera and said: “I am delighted to tell you that I have successfully guided our City through this grave crisis and the situation is now under control. The villain who committed this terrible crime is behind bars, and tomorrow he will be tried and found guilty and then I will personally throw away the key to his prison cell.”

“But Mayor, ” said the reporter, “any news of the missing bunny?”

“No more time for questions, duty calls” said the Mayor, and he turned round and went back to his office.

The hours went by, and Theo began to feel very sad and lonely, and a bit frightened. A policeman brought him some bread and water and offered him a chance to make one phone call. But Theo didn’t have anyone to call. And then a lawyer came to see him, and they went up to an interview room where a police officer turned on a tape recorder and said : “You have a right to remain silent, and any thing you say may be taken down and used in a court of law as evidence against you.” And Theo said:

“Oooh, ah ah ah.”

And then they took him back to his cell.

It was a few hours later, as Theo tried to sleep, that he heard the jangling of keys. He buried his head in the pillow and pretended not to notice. Then a gruff voice said:

“Come on, wake up. It’s time we sprung you out of here.” He opened his eyes and saw that it was a police dog with keys in his mouth. In a jiffy, Theo had spring up, reached through the bars for the keys, and climbed up to get the lock open. Monkeys are highly intelligent primates you see, and it’s not at all difficult for them to do such things.

“Put on this blue coat, ” said the dog. It was a sort of jacket that police dogs sometimes wear. The word “Police” was written on the back. Theo put it on.

“Now try and act like a police dog,” said the dog. But as they walked together through the busy part of the station, a policeman said “I didn’t know we were using monkeys on the force,” and another policeman said, “I expect that they climb in through windows and catch criminals by surprise.” Still, nobody stopped them, and soon they were out on the street and running down the road.

On the corner, they paused for breath, and the dog explained what he had heard about Mr. Grabber kidnapping the Easter Bunny. “I might have known it, ” said Theo. “He’s a REAL villain, is that Mr. Grabber.”

But the important thing was that Theo knew where the Easter Bunny was being kept prisoner – at the back of the llama pen. He caught a 49 bus straight back to the zoo, and soon was able to find his old friend and release him from his hutch.

I don’t need to tell you how glad the bunny was to be let free, not least because it was his busiest time of year and he had so much work to do before Easter. He would have just loved to go straight to the police station and tell them all about Mr. Grabber, but he couldn’t do that, because, well he was a bunny you see. So he ran back straight to his secret hideaway to catch up on sorting out his Easter Eggs.

The next morning the Mayor sat up in bed and turned on his television set to see if there had been any developments over night in the case of the missing bunny. A red banner flashed across the screen saying:

Breaking News. Monkey Escapes.

And the reporter was saying

“The chief suspect in the case of the missing Easter Bunny has escaped from police custody.”

The mayor rushed down to his office and was about to pick up his red phone and demand the immediate sacking of the chief of police when he noticed a little envelope on his desk. The envelope was sealed with with wax and imprinted with a secret sign – a sign which very few people know and recognise, but fortunately the Mayor was one of them. It was the seal of the Easter Bunny, and every year he used it to communicate with the Mayor and to arrange the annual Easter Egg hunt.

“That’s strange,” said they mayor. And he fumbled open the envelope. Inside he found a card and on the card was written the following words.

“Dear Mayor. The Monkey is Innocent. Yours Sincerely, The Easter Bunny.”

Text Copyright Hugh Fraser 2009.

Click Picture to Enlarge

Theo The Monkey is not as bad as people say. Perhaps he’s a bit naughty, but he means well. Still, when a new keeper, Mr Grabber, is put in charge of the monkey cage, he selects Theo to help him do something bad. At first, Theo thinks it’s all a game, and only later does he realise that he is being used to help a gang of thieves. He consults Fucious, the Wise Old Monkey, for advice.

Read by Natasha. Duration 18.22. Story by Bertie. Original Picture for Storynory by Tania Fernandes.

The monkeys who lived in the cage with Theo didn’t agree on many things, but they did agree on one: their keeper, Mr. Hartley, was an extremely nice man who was always kind to animals, especially monkeys.

He always made sure that they were never short of branches to swing on. He fed them on the best bananas, berries and nuts. When the baby monkeys were sick, he helped their mommies to take good care of them. And he even let the monkeys watch television in the evenings, well past closing time for the zoo.

Yes, Mr. Hartley was very popular with the monkeys. But he wasn’t popular with Mr. Shingles. And that was a problem. Because Mr. Shingles was the head zookeeper.

He didn’t believe in being nice, unless it was strictly necessary. And he didn’t like Mr. Hartely, because he was far too nice all round. So one day he called Mr. Hartley into his office and told him that he was being demoted – which meant he was going to do a less important job. From now on, Mr. Hartley would be in charge of the stick insects. The monkeys were going to have a new keeper who had been hand-picked for not being nice. His name was Mr. Grabber.

Mr. Grabber started work the following week. The first thing he did was to order the monkeys to tidy up their cage every day – or else.

At feeding time, he didn’t give them the sweet bananas like the ones that Mr. Hartley used to give them. No, he did a deal with the local supermarket. He bought cheap bananas that were past their sell-by date – which meant they were too rotten for people to eat – but he said that they would do for a gang of monkeys. And as television, he banned it all together because he said that it only showed rubbish.

The monkeys weren’t happy. But what could they do? They were prisoners in their own cage.
Mr. Shingles was very pleased with his new monkey keeper. He entirely approved of his strict methods. But still, he worried that even Mr. Grabber would have trouble with one particular monkey. And so he warned him all about Theo:

“He might look innocent, but he’s a proper little blighter that one is. If he was a human, he would a criminal”, he said.

And Mr. Grabber made a note in his book: Theo – Criminal.

About a month went by, and one Sunday morning when the zoo was closed, Mr. Grabber came to the monkey cage and said to Theo:

“Right now my hairy friend. I’m taking you out for a very special treat.”

And then Theo went for a ride in the back of Mr. Grabber’s van.

He didn’t like that much, because Mr. Grabber drove very fast and not very straight and shook him about. Eventually they stopped, and Theo hopped out. He smelt grass and trees
Mr. Grabber led Theo by a collar and chain through a garden full of flowers and into a house. Upstairs, they met a man and a woman who were waiting for them in a big room that was almost empty. The only piece of furniture was a chest of drawers. Mr. Grabber undid Theo’s lead and said to the others:

“Now just stand back and watch what he does. If he finds it, he’ll get a banana.”

Theo wondered what “it” could be. He strolled around the room, and as there wasn’t much else to do, he climbed up onto the chest of drawers. The top drawer was slightly open, so he stuck his paw into the gap and opened it some more. Inside he saw something shiny. It was a diamond necklace. Theo took it out and wrapped it around his foot. Then he scampered around the room shrieking
Oooh Ahha Ahha Ahha !

The woman took a banana out of her handbag and held it out to him.

“Clever little monkey, ” she said. “Give me the diamonds and I’ll give you the banana. That’s a good swap now, isn’t it?”

Theo hopped over to her, and the woman shrank back because he had big claws and sharp teeth. She held out the banana and Theo grabbed it . But he didn’t give her the diamonds.

“Oi, that’s not fair!” said the woman crossly. “It’s just like a I thought. You can’t trust a monkey to keep a deal.”

“Oh yes you can,” thought Theo to himself. And he unwrapped the necklace from his foot and gave it to the woman. The two men clapped and the woman smiled and gave him another banana. Theo felt very clever and pleased with himself.

Then, they all went into another room. This one was well-furnished. Theo searched through all the drawers in all the furniture, and brought various objects over to the lady like some nail clippers, a can of deodorant, and a remote control. Each time the woman shook her head and gave the object back to him. Eventually he found a gold ring under the pillow on the bed. He brought this over to her and every one smiled and clapped. This time Mr. Grabber gave him something even better. A banana covered in chocolate. Theo was in monkey heaven.

After a few more practices at search and find games, Mr. Grabber said:
“There. I told you this monkey could do the business.”

After that, Mr. Grabber drove Theo back to the zoo. The other monkeys asked where he had been, but Theo didn’t want to say in case they were jealous. Instead, he fell asleep and dreamed of chocolate-covered bananas.

One evening, about a week later, Mr. Grabber again took Theo for another drive in the back of his van. Theo thought to himself:

“I expect that they are taking me to play that game again. I bet that this time I’ll have to compete against some other monkeys, and if I win, the prize will be even bigger and even tastier. Yummeee !
Again they drove out of the town, and stopped outside the gate of a big house
The same man and woman as before were waiting for them. But this time they didn’t go inside. Instead, they went around the side of the house, and Mr. Grabber said:

“Now Theo. You want a chocie banana don’t you? Well you see that open window up there? All you have to do is to climb up the drainpipe, and in through that window, and find something nice and shiny like you did before. Bring it back to us, and we’ll do a swap with you.”

Theo understood all this perfectly. He climbed up the drainpipe and through the window. It was dark inside, so he turned on a light. He saw that there were some interesting boxes on the dressing table. He opened up one and inside found a sparkling necklace. The other boxes had rings with jewels in them.

“I bet these are worth a whole crate of chocolate bananas” said Theo. And he went over to the window, and dropped them out onto the lawn.

Just as he was about to turn off the light and leave, he noticed another box by the bed. This one was even bigger than the others. He hopped over and opened it. Inside he found something wonderful.
Chocolates!

He started to stuff them into his mouth.

“Ooh Ooh, AAAhj Aaah ! “ he called out.

Out in the garden, Mr. Grabber and his accomplices were waiting and getting rather worried. What if Theo didn’t come down? They would have to leave him there, and the police might find him…. It could only mean trouble. Big trouble.

“I warned you not to trust a monkey,” said the woman.

But soon after she said that, Theo did come down the drainpipe. Everyone was very relieved.
Mr. Grabber took him back to the zoo, and hardly anyone noticed that he had been out, except for Fucious, who was a wise old monkey with silver hair. Theo was so excited that he couldn’t help telling Fucious what had happened. The wise old monkey shook his head and said:

“I fear that Mr. Grabber and his friends are up to no good. In the human world bananas are cheap and diamonds are expensive.”

“In the monkey world, bananas are beautiful and diamonds are useless. So it is a good swap for me.”
Fucious could see what Theo was thinking and he said: “And you must not forget too that it is wrong to steal. The owner of the diamonds will be very sad to lose her beautiful things.”

And Theo wondered if the lady would be more sad about losing her diamonds or her chocolates.

A week later, the owners of the house came back from holiday. The lady who owned the jewels was indeed extremely unhappy when she found that her precious diamonds and gold rings had been stolen.
“It’s all your fault,” she said to her husband. “I told you to check that the windows were closed before we left…. And the blighters even ate my chocolates. Look at my curtain … and the bed clothes… they are covered in strange chocolaty marks… like… like paw prints. And see these thick black hairs on my pillow…disgusting.”

The husband telephoned the police, who said that they would come round to take a statement in a few days time. Then a neighbour called in to say that while they had been away she had seen something very odd indeed. She had been walking down the lane one evening, when she looked up at their house, and she could swear that she saw a creature like a monkey climbing down the drainpipe. Now that was strange – but interesting all the same.

A week later, some policemen came to the zoo and said to Mr. Shingles:

“We have reason to believe that one of your monkeys has broken into a house and stolen some valuables, including diamonds and chocolates” said the policeman. “We checked our files and the name of one of your monkeys came up. Young Theodore. Seems like he has form. He was nicked last year for stealing chocolate.”

“Ah yes, that Theo’s your monkey.,” said Mr. Shingles. “I can’t say I will be too sad to see the back of him”

Six police officers put on white suits and gloves and spent all day searching the monkeys’ cage. They found plenty of monkey poo, berry stones, and banana skins, but no diamonds.

Theodore was very relieved when the police officers left: Because it’s one thing to live in a cage in the zoo with all your friends, and quite another to live in a cell in a prison surrounded by criminals.
A few weeks later, Mr. Grabber changed his van for a bright red sports car. The wise old monkey said that meant he had sold the diamonds.

Theo was very puzzled by the way things had turned out:

“Oh wise one,” said Theo to Fucious: “If there is right and wrong in the world, how come Mr. Grabber has bought himself new sports car, and the lady is still missing her jewels and is very sad about what happened? Why didn’t the police find out that it was Mr. Grabber who stole the jewels?”

And Fucious, the wise old monkey, sat thinking for a while before saying:

“That is indeed the hardest question of all to answer, even after one has lived and seen the world for many a long year. I too often wonder why it is that bad people get away with doing wrong things. But believe me, young monkey, this story is not yet at an end. One day Mr. Grabber will grow too bold with his success at wrong-doing, and then he will be caught.”

“And when will that day come?” asked Theo.

“We shall just have to wait and see,” said the wise old monkey.

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Theo, the star of our popular story The Monkey Who Loved Chocolate, returns for a new escapade in which the animals at the zoo face a major threat to the comfy lifestyle in the form of Mr. Shingles, the new chief zoo keeper.

Mr. Shingles does not believe in modern zoology. He thinks that pampering to animals’ every wish just encourages them to lounge and loaf around. His new regime is far from the animals liking. The animals want to “bite back” – but only Theo is ingenious enough to find a way.

Read by Natasha. Duration 16 min.

Life in the zoo was not as exciting as on the outside, but it had its attractions.   The daily menus catered for everyone’s  tastes.  Some liked berries, others liked bananas.   Some hungered for steak, others for fresh termites.   The food just turned up every day, and nobody had to hunt or gather.  The animals didn’t even have to tidy up their own cages or make their beds with fresh straw.  The keepers did all that for them.
 
The keeper of the monkeys’ cage was called Mr. Hartley.   He was a sweet man, and if the truth be told, a bit of a softy.  Anything the monkeys screeched for, he provided – almost always.  The chief monkey, whose name was Bozo, wanted a television so that he could watch Animal Planet.  At first Mr. Harley could not understand what he was squawking on about, but he saw that Bozo was pointing to the video screen that displayed important information for the visitors.   He tried turning it off, but that agitated Bozo even more.  Then he twigged what was in the monkeys’ mind, and he went out and bought the latest flat panel TV and put it in the window of his office where Bozo and his followers could watch it.
 
But such a life of luxury could not go on for ever, and it didn’t.
 
After Theo’s famous escape and his chocolate-crazed escapade,  the zoo was noticed in high places.    The local newspaper ran a headline that read:
 
“Slack Security at the Zoo.”
 
And a local politician ran for election under the slogan;
 
“Time to get tough on the animals.”
 
Pressure mounted for change.  The head zookeeper lost his job.   The new zoo boss was a man of a very different ilk.  His name was Mr.  Shingles, and he held old-fashioned views about how animals should be kept.   He didn’t believe in trendy modern zoology.  He thought that pandering to animals’ every demand just encouraged them to laze and loaf around.  He knew that his views were out of step with modern thinking, and he felt bitter because he had risen slowly through the ranks of the zoo service.  But now the town’s mayor had recognised his talents. His day had come.
 
On his first morning at work, he toured the zoo.  When he came to the monkeys, he could hardly believe his eyes.
 
“Who is the keeper of this cage?” 
 
“I am Sir, ” admitted Mr. Heartly.
 
“Well it’s a disgrace !”  shouted Mr. Shingles. “Monkeys lounging around watching television in the middle of the morning.   They’ll turn into TV zombies.  Take their goggle-box immediately!”
 
And Mr. Heartly had no choice, but do as he was told.   It didn’t matter how much Bozo screeched now – Mr. Heartly did not dare to cater to his demands. 
 
Next Mr. Shingles visited the part of the zoo called “The Kingdom of the Great Apes”.   He was furious that the zoo’s prize gorilla was too shy to come out and greet him.  “What’s the point of a hairy king who hides away?” he demanded to know.  “Tell his majesty that the visitors have paid good money to see his ugly face, and in future he had better show it.”
 
And as he continued on his tour he had plenty more to note about the animals -  and none of it was good.  The lion was asleep,  the koalas were hanging around in one big daze, the stick insects were all but invisible,  the bears were hiding in their lairs, the penguins were pushing and shoving at feeding time, the hippos were letting off great gusts of wind,  and the baboons were showing their bottoms to the visitors.
 
He gathered the keepers round and delivered this message:
 
“There’ are far too many scroungers, layabouts, and freeloaders  in this zoo.   I want every primate – and yes that includes the keepers – I want every quadruped, every bird, fish, reptile and every last tiny insect to understand this:  from now on,  if they want to eat, they must provide value for money!”
 
He gave special instructions to Mr. Heartly.   He must  make the monkeys do some scientific tests and prove their worth.
 
“Idle hands do the devil’s work,” he said.  “Keep those monkey minds occupied and they will stay out of trouble.”
 
Mr. Heartly tried to explain that it was all very well to teach chimps to do clever tricks,  but monkeys had smaller brains.
 
But Mr. Shingles boomed back: “Those monkeys aren’t stupid, they’re just lazy.”
 
And so poor Mr. Heartly spent his days trying to teach the monkeys to   count to three and to read the newspaper.  None of them showed an inclination to learn their lessons, except for one, and that was Theo. “Well well, well,” said Mr. Heartly.  “So it turns out that the naughtiest monkey of them all is the brainiest.”
 
Life changed dramatically for all the other animals too.  The keepers kept the lion awake by mixing coffee into  his cat food,  they cut back the Koalas’ eucalyptus leaves,  they sealed up the bears’ lairs, they painted the stick insects bright blue, and they did not feed  penguins until they stood  in an orderly line.  The hippos were put on diets.  As for the baboons, they weren’t allowed out of their rooms until they learned to show some respect to the visitors.
 
 
At night all the animals complained.   They were kept apart by their cages, but those that could roar, roared, and those that could squawk, squawked.   The wild birds twittered to their friends in the aviary, and all the talk was of a strike at the zoo.   A local reporter got wind of this, and went to ask Mr. Shingles what he would do if the animals went on strike.
 
“Ha! ” exclaimed Mr. Shingles. “If a bunch of creatures are too lazy to get out of bed in the morning,  how would you know when they go on strike?  In any case, we’ll just stop their food, and then we’ll see how long the strike lasts.”
 
And so the animals didn’t go on strike. But they were looking for revenge.  And Theo found it.
 
One day,  kind Mr.  Heartly was sweeping up the peach stones and banana skins off the floor of the cage.   Theo noticed that he had left his key in the door.  He swung by and grabbed it, before whisking it off to hide on a high branch of his favourite tree.  As Mr. Heartly left the cage, he noticed that he had lost his key – but he didn’t dare tell anyone about it, because he was afraid of losing his job.   Instead, he took the spare set of keys from his desk. 
 
“After all,” he said to himself. “What harm can come of it?   It’s not as if monkeys know how to turn keys in locks.”
 
But Theo did.   And that night he opened the door and loped over to the Head Keeper’s office.  Mr. Shingles light was still on .  He was working late, writing to all the keepers to tell them how much their wages would be cut.  But he had left a window open at the back, and Theo crept inside and hid inside a cupboard until Mr. Shingles left for the night.  
 
The keys to all the cages were hanging on the walls.   Each one had a label on its ring.   Theo spelt out “LI-ON”  and “B-EAR” and “Hipp-o”.   He was thankful to Mr. Heartly for teaching him to read.    Then he scampered around the cages opening all the doors.  First he let out the monkeys and  the apes.  He told them to make as much noise as possible to wake everyone else up.  The King Gorilla made a quiet but dignified speech, appealing to the larger animals not to eat anyone, and to be careful not to tread on any of the insects.
 
 None of the animals left the zoo altogether – they just fluttered, plodded galloped, swung, and crawled all over the public areas of the zoo.  Some of them tried the sandwiches in the cafe, but they soon realised that their own food was far better than what the visitors were served.   Others munched the leaves on the trees and nibbled the grass on the square.  An elephant wandered into Mr. Shingles’ office.  There wasn’t much of it left after that.  
 
In the morning, the giraffes’ keeper, a lady called Molly, was the first to arrive at work.  When she saw the animals wondering around, she immediately went back to her car and called up the local TV Station.  Then she called Mr. Shingles.
 
“Good morning sir. The animals have escaped.”
 
“Which animals?”  he asked .
 
“All of them.”
 
 As Mr. Shingles raced into work, he heard the news on the car radio.  None of it was good.  He heard his own name:
 
They called him,  ”The  tough man at the top” – and left it in no doubt that the fault of the fiasco lay with him.
 
When he arrived, Mr. Shingles brushed by the cameras and reporters, and went into the zoo.   He knew that it was very dangerous to be walking among the animals, but he almost did not care if he lost his life.   His whole reputation was in ruins.
 
Then a remarkable thing happened.  A monkey came up to him and offered him his paw.  Mr. Shingles took Theo by the paw and gently shook it .  Then the animals started to return to their cages.  You see, they didn’t really want to escape, they just wanted better terms and conditions. Theo turned over a rock and showed Mr. Shingles the keys from his office.  But he decided to keep the key to his own cage – the one he had stolen from Mr. Heartly – because nobody else knew that it was missing.
 
Mr. Shingles went back outside the zoo to meet the reporters.
 
“Yes, there has been a minor incident, but now all the animals have returned to their cages,” he told them .
 
“Sir, how on earth did you persuade wild creatures to do that?” asked one of the reporters.
 
“Long experience of  zoo work, and a touch of that animal magic,” he said. 

And so Mr. Shingles kept his job as the head zookeeper  - but only just.   He had learned to respect Theo the monkey – and he swore to get his revenge.  
 
And that was the story of the Zoo that Bit Back.

Original picture for Storynory by Tania Fernandes. Click image to see whole picture.

This chocolate-crazed story should get you in the mood for an Easter-egg hunt. Look out for a surprise-guest appearance from a famous fluffy animal dear to the hearts of chocolate-lovers everywhere.

Jim is one of the very few boys on earth who doesn’t like chocolate. When Aunty Judith takes him to the zoo, she gives him a chocolate bar. Jim throws it to Theo the monkey – but little does he know what chaos and mayhem will follow from his kind gift.

Read by Natasha. Duration 14.05

This is a story about a very unusual boy, and an even more unusual monkey. The boy was out of the ordinary as boys go, because he didn’t like chocolate. No, not at all. Not even one little bit. And I must stay, I’ve never met a boy like that. Not in my entire life. And the monkey was unusual because he absolutely adored chocolate – this particular monkey went absolutely bananas for it – and as you may guess – very few monkeys are mad about chocolate, if only because, they’ve never even tasted it.

The boy was called Jim.

And the monkey was called Theodore, or Theo for short.

One day, Jim’s Aunty Judith took him to the zoo. Jim’s mother had told her that Jim didn’t like chocolate, but she didn’t believe that.

“Poor little thing,” she said to herself. “His Mum won’t buy him chocolate because she’s too mean. But I’ll buy him a nice lovely bar and give it to him while we are out.”

And that’s what she did. Only it was true. Jim really didn’t like chocolate.

“Oh thanks Auntie Judith” he said when she gave it to him. “That’s really kind of you. I’ll just save it for later, if you don’t mind.”

But he did like seeing all the animals in the Zoo.

The prowling bears weren’t at all cuddly – but they were super cool all the same.

The giraffes had lovely soft noses. The snakes in the snake house made Jim’s blood run cold – but he liked being scared really, – just a bit.

And the monkeys – well everyone loves monkeys. They looked silly but intelligent all at the same time. And in particular, one was nicer than all the others. He came up to the bars of the cage and pressed his face through them. That little monkey was Theo. Jim thought he looked hungry, and then he remembered the bar of chocolate in his coat pocket, and decided to give it to him.

Auntie Judith was starting to move on to the next cage full of chimpanzees. Jim unwrapped the chocolate bar, and threw it to Theo. The chocolate bounced against the cage, but Theo reached out with his little hand through the bars and grabbed it. Instead of stuffing it down his mouth, he started to lick it. His big brown eyes started to go all dreamy. He was in monkey heaven.

Just then Auntie Judith called to Jim and he had to run after her. “Thanks for the chocolate Auntie Judith”, he said. “It was delicious.”

And Aunty Judith thought:

“Such a mean Mummy not to give Jimmy chocolate. He loves it. Obviously.”

But it was Theo who was in love with chocolate. It went straight to his stomach, and then straight to his brain, and soon he was swinging from around the climbing frame of his cage like a mad  monkey.

“Ooo oooo Ah Ah!” he said at the top of voice for the next hour and a half. And the keepers and all the other monkeys thought he had gone crazy. Which he had. He was crazy for chocolate.

But when the chocolate high wore off, Theo felt really really down. Have you ever felt like when you’ve eaten too much chocolate? First it makes you really happy, and then later, you feel a bit sad. Well that’s what happened to Theo. And all the next day he sat in his cave thinking to himself.

“Poor poor me. Now I’ve tasted chocolate, I’ll never be happy again.”

The keepers noticed that he had gone off his bananas and they worried that he was pining away. One of them thought that he must be in love, and that a girl monkey had turned her nose up at him. Another thought he was sick, and but the vet couldn’t catch Theo because he started to swing away.

“There’s nothing wrong with that monkey” he said.

But nobody guessed that Theo was planning to escape so he could find some chocolate. And the very next day, his chance came. The keeper came in carrying a big bucket full of bananas, and he didn’t close the door properly behind him. Theo was watching for something like to happen, and in a moment he was out.

“Oi You! Stop!” shouted another keeper.

But Theo didn’t. Soon he was heading for the turnstyles, which were meant to stop people coming in without paying. As Theo was jumping over them, he saw a boy in the queue eating a fruity chocolate bar – he grabbed that and made his way down the street. The boy was too startled to cry. He just said,

“Mum, did you see that monkey stole my chocolate” he said.

But his Mum hadn’t seen and she said, “Don’t tell fibs. I’m not buying you another one. You’re the greedy little monkey”.

Theo gobbled down the stolen chocolate, and now he was on a high. He headed straight for the shopping centre – not because he knew that chocolate was there – but he sensed it.

Now the Emergency Services started to get lots of strange calls. They are the people you call when something terrible happens – like a fire, or an accident, or a theft.

First of all a little girl called and said that a monkey had stolen her chocolate. The woman who took the call told her to stop mucking around and wasting time or she would get a visit from a policeman.

But then the owner of a corner shop called and said that a monkey had rushed into his shop and rushed out again with an arm full of nutty choco-bars.

And then a gift shop rang to say that somebody had stolen several pounds of hand-made Belgium chocolates.

And the head of the supermarket grocery store rang to say that a monkey was swinging over the shelves, knocking tins, jars, and bottle of milk all over the place, and generally creating mayhem.

“I don’t suppose you believe me,” he said sadly. “But you can hear the noise. Those are my customers. Some of them are screaming and others are laughing”.

“Oh yes, I do believe you” said the telephonist at Emergency Services. “And I can tell you now that he’s heading straight for your chocolate shelves.”

Which of course he was.

Now the situation was becoming serious. The Police set up a special Incident Centre, which is what they do when something really, really bad happens. And chief Inspector Clews put twenty officers on the case, and told every patrol car and policeman on the beat to look out for a monkey on the loose.

The local television news had pictures of all the chaos caused by Theo, and interviews with children whose chocolate he had stolen.

The television reporter said,

“This disaster could not have happened at a worse time. Easter is on its way, and shopkeepers say it is too dangerous to put out Easter Eggs. Our children may have to go without chocolate this Easter.”

They mayor was so furious that he called up Chief Inspector Clews told him that he was so bad at his job that he couldn’t even catch an escaped monkey. And Chief Inspector Clews didn’t like that. So he decided to set up a special trap.

First he got a special cage with an automatic door, and filled it with chocolate bars. He left it in the middle of the park, because he guessed that Theo was hiding there -which he was. But Theo wasn’t stupid. He saw the policemen bring the cage, and he knew that it was a trap. Instead he climbed into the back of a supermarket lorry just as it was unloading. That time he got away with a whole cardboard box full of chocolate bars.

Then the police were armed with tranquilizer guns which fired special darts to make Theo go to sleep. But it’s hard to hit a fast-swinging chocolate-charged monkey, and they couldn’t shoot Theo.

Now every year, it was the tradition to have an Easter Egg hunt in the Mayor’s back garden – which was so big, it was almost like a park. All the children from the town were invited to come and look for eggs hidden under flowers and behind trees. But this year, the Mayor said he wasn’t going to have an Easter Egg hunt because he couldn’t trust his police force to stop the monkey coming and spoiling it all. So all the children were very sad.

And so was the Easter Bunny.

The Easter Bunny decided to go and have a word with Theo. He knew where he was hiding in the park, because he had often smelt chocolate around a certain hollow tree. He went here and called out:

“Hey you. What do you think you are doing spoiling everything for the little children?”

Theo looked out and saw the bunny. He wasn’t afraid of a little fluffy bunny rabbit, and so he came out to talk to him.

He said, “What do you mean spoiling everything for the children? There’s enough chocolate in this world to go round isn’t there?”

But the Easter Bunny was very cross. And when he was cross, he looked surprisingly fierce, even though he was all fluffy and white.

“How can I go around hiding Easter Eggs when I know at any moment you might come along and steal them? Stealing is wrong, and even a monkey should know that.”

And that night Theo couldn’t sleep because his conscience kept on telling him that the bunny was right. Stealing is wrong.

So the next day he went back to the Zoo and surrendered.

Everyone was ever so surprised to see him. But he sat in his cage looking ever so sad, because he thought he would never eat chocolate again. In fact, he though he would die without chocolate.

A week went by and he was still sad. And eventually Sunday came. And it was a very special Sunday because it was Easter Sunday.

And the Easter Bunny bought chocolate to all the children.

And do you know what?

He also bought a special supply of Easter Eggs to Theo. And he bought eggs to Theo every Easter after that, so that all year long he had something to look forward to. And even Theo realized that you can’t eat chocolate all the time because you’ll get fat, and then you won’t be able to swing from tree to tree and go “ooo oooo aaah aaah”. So it’s much better to keep it for a special treat.

Unless of course you don’t like chocolate.

And that’s the story of the Monkey Who Loved Chocolate.