Once there was a monkey name George.

One day, George the Monkey was swinging through the jungle trees when he spied something unusual on the forest floor. "What's that?" he said. "I must have a closer look."

He slid down a vine and landed beside it wishing to examine it closer. It was a box. The box was made of wood, and it was as big as he was.

Cautiously, George walked around the box looking at each side. Three of the sides were smooth, except for a perfectly straight crack near the top. The forth side had two shiny things on each side covering the crack. George reached out and carefully touched one of the shiny things with his finger. "Ooo," he said as he touched the exotic surface. He had never felt anything like it before. It was smooth and cold.

He leaned in to look closer. "Yikes," he cried and jumped back. There was another monkey looking back at him from inside the shiny thing! He looked closer again then felt relief when he realized that it was not another monkey after all. "Oh silly me," he said. "It's just my reflection."

Getting bored, George jumped on top of the box. When he looked down, he saw that there was a hole in the top of the box. He looked closely at the hole. It was dark, and just big enough to put his hand through.

Suddenly, George smelled something. It was a pleasant smell that made him feel good, the smell of a delicious, juicy apple. The odor was coming from the hole. George put his face close the hole and sniffed. Yes, it was definitely an apple. "It must be in the box," thought George. He reached down in the box, and, sure enough, felt an apple lying in there. "Oh yummi," George thought already looking forward to eating the delicious apple.

He tried to pull the apple out, but something was wrong. His hand no longer fit through the hole. "Oh no!" he said. "The hole must have shrunk." But when he looked at it, the hole did not appear any smaller. George was confused. "If my hand fit in, it must fit out," he reasoned. He tried again to pull the apple out, but still he was stuck.

After a few hours, an ass came walking through the jungle. He stopped and looked at George. "Why are you sticking your hand in that box?" he asked.

"There's an apple in it that I want," replied George, "but my hand is stuck and I can't get it out."