A monkey was playing with a cat when they spotted chestnuts roasting on the stove. The monkey, smelling their aroma and drooling with desire, said to the cat, "Those chestnuts smell wonderful—do you want to eat some?"
The cat answered honestly, "Yes." "Alright, let's divide the work. You take the chestnuts off the stove, and I'll peel them."
The cat, enduring the heat, carefully pulled the chestnuts from the fire one by one and handed each to the monkey. The monkey, with swift and nimble movements, peeled every chestnut—but with even quicker reflexes, it popped them all into its own mouth, leaving none for the cat.
The cat did not get to eat the chestnut, but the fur on its paw was singed off by the fire.
The idiom "pulling chestnuts out of the fire" describes taking risks and suffering hardship, only for others to reap the benefits.
Source: *La Fontaine*, "The Monkey and the Cat"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "火中取栗" came to describe how taking risks and suffering hardship, only for others to reap the benefits.