The Monkey and the Cat

The Monkey and the Cat is best known as a fable adapted by Jean de La Fontaine under the title Le Singe et le Chat that appeared in the second collection of his Fables in 1679 (IX.17). It is the source of popular idioms in both English and French, with the general meaning of being the dupe (or tool) of another (e.g., a cat's-paw).

In the fable, a monkey persuades a cat to retrieve chestnuts from the embers of a fire for the two to share, but the monkey quickly eats each chestnut as it is retrieved, and the cat burns its paw in the process. Although there is no evidence that the story existed before the 15th century, it began to appear in collections of Aesop's Fables from the 17th century^[1] but is not included in the Perry Index. Usage of the "cat's paw" idiom and reference to the fable have been particularly employed in (although not limited to) political contexts.