I can’t recall the last time a news story gave me as much joy as I felt reading about the long-tailed macaques at an Indonesian temple who steal items from tourists to trade for food. That they have figured out how much various items (from sunglasses to phones) are worth to people and demand appropriate payment is especially wonderful.

It does strike me that for all the jokes about criminal enterprise and academic pondering about Macaca economicus there is a potential religious explanation for what’s going on. Consider:

1. “The Balinese Hindu site dates back to at least the 11th century and the roughly 600 monkeys that inhabit it are considered by locals to be sacred guardians of the temple.”
2. “Kadek Ari Astawa, who coordinates the monkey handlers, said he heard that when the site first opened to tourism, visitors sometimes fed the monkeys. When temple management started feeding them a regular diet and forbade tourists from giving them food, the monkeys began to steal visitors’ belongings.”
   
   

If you quit bringing gifts for the sacred guardians of the temple, what can you expect?