These stories are re-uploaded from the book titled Short Stories for Children for Spoken English Program (Youth for Seva)
SAND AND STONE
A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. During some
point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one
in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything,
wrote in the sand: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.”
They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a
bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started
drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near
drowning, he wrote on a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.”
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt
you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other
friend replied: “When someone hurts us, we should write it down in sand where
winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good
for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.
” LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND, AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN
STONE
MOUNTAIN
"A son and his father were walking on the mountains. Suddenly, his son
falls, hurts himself and screams: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
To his surprise, he
hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
Curious, he yells:
"Who are you?"
He receives the answer:
"Who are you?"
And then he screams to
the mountain: "I admire you!"
The voice answers:
"I admire you!"
Angered at the response,
he screams: "Coward!"
He receives the answer:
"Coward!"
He looks to his father
and asks: "What's going on?"
The father smiles and
says: "My son, pay attention."
Again the man screams:
"You are a champion!"
The voice answers:
"You are a champion!"
The boy is surprised,
but does not understand.
Then the father explains: "People call this ECHO, but really this is
LIFE. It gives you back everything you say or do. Our life is simply a
reflection of our actions. If you want more love in the world, create more love
in your heart. If you want more competence in your team, improve your
competence. This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life;
Life will give you back everything you have given to it."
YOUR LIFE IS NOT A
COINCIDENCE. IT'S A REFLECTION OF YOU!"
TWO FROGS
A group of frogs were
traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the
other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as
good as dead.
The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all
their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that
they were as good as dead.
Finally, one of the
frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down
and died.
The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of
frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die.
He jumped even harder
and finally made it out.
When he got out, the
other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?”
The frog explained to
them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire
time.
NEVER LISTEN TO THOSE DISCOURAGE YOU, WHEN YOU ARE SURE YOU ARE DOING GOOD
THINGS, KEEP IT UP!
THE WIND AND THE SUN
Once the Wind and the Sun had an argument. “I am stronger than you,” said the
Wind.
“No, you are not,” said
the Sun.
Just at that moment they
saw a traveler walking across the road. He was wrapped in a shawl. The Sun and
the Wind agreed that whoever could separate the traveller from his shawl was
stronger.
The Wind took the first turn. He blew with all his might to tear the
traveller’s shawl from his shoulders. But the harder he blew, the tighter the
traveller gripped the shawl to his body. The struggle went on till the Wind’s
turn was over.
Now it was the Sun’s turn. The Sun smiled warmly. The traveller felt the warmth
of the smiling Sun. Soon he let the shawl fall open. The Sun’s smile grew
warmer and warmer... hotter and hotter. Now the traveller no longer needed his
shawl. He took it off and dropped it on the ground. The Sun was declared
stronger than the Wind.
Moral: Brute force can’t
achieve what a gentle smile can.
AS YOU SOW, SO SHALL YOU REAP
One night, three thieves stole a lot of money from a rich man’s house.
They put the money in a bag and went to the forest. They felt very hungry. So,
one of them went to a nearby village to buy food. The other two remained
in the forest to take care of the bag of money.
The thief that went for food had an evil idea. He ate his food at a hotel. Then
he bought food for his two mates in the forest. He mixed a strong poison with
the food. He thought, “Those two will eat this poisoned food and die. Then I
will get all the money for myself.”
Meanwhile, the two wicked men in the forest decided to kill their mate on
return. They thought that they would divide the money between the two of them.
All the three wicked men carried out their cruel plans.
The thief who wanted all the money for himself came to the forest with the
poisoned food. The two men in the forest hit him and killed him. Then they ate
the poisoned food and died. Thus, these evil people met with an evil end.
Moral: Evil begets
evil
THE VILLAGER AND THE SPECTACLES
There was a villager. He was illiterate. He did not know how to read and write.
He often saw people wearing spectacles for reading books or papers. He thought,
“If I have spectacles, I can also read like these people. I must go to town and
buy a pair of spectacles for myself.”
So one day he went to a town. He entered a spectacles shop He asked the shopkeeper
for a pair of spectacles for reading. The shopkeeper gave him various pairs of
spectacles and a book. The villager tried all the spectacles one by one. But he
could not read anything. He told the shopkeeper that all those spectacles were
useless for him.
The shopkeeper gave him a doubtful look. Then he looked at the book. It was
upside down! The shopkeeper said, “Perhaps you don’t know how to read.” The
villager said, “No, I don’t. I want to buy spectacles so that I can read like
others. But I can’t read with any of these spectacles.”
The shopkeeper controlled his laughter with great difficulty when he learnt the
real problem of his illiterate customer. He explained to the villager, “My dear
friend, you are very ignorant. Spectacles don’t help to read or write. They
only help you to see better. First of all you must learn to read and
write.”
Moral: Ignorance is
blindness.
THE FARMER AND HIS SONS
A farmer had five
sons. They were strong and hardworking. But they always quarrelled with one
another. Sometimes, they even fought. The farmer wanted his sons to stop
quarrelling and fighting. He wanted them to live in peace. Plain words of
advice or scolding did not have much effect on these young people.
The farmer always thought what to do to keep his sons united. One day he
found an answer to the problem. So he called all his sons together. He showed
them a bundle of sticks and said, “I want any of you to break these sticks
without separating them from the bundle.” Each of the five sons tried one by
one. They used their full strength and skill. But none of them could break the
sticks.
Then the old man separated the sticks and gave each of them just a single stick
to break. They broke the sticks easily. The farmer said, “A single stick by
itself is weak. It is strong as long as it is tied up in a bundle. Likewise,
you will be strong if you are united. You will be weak if you are
divided.”
Moral: United we stand,
Divided we fall.
BIRBAL
THE WISE
One day, a rich merchant
came to Birbal. He said to Birbal, “I have seven servants in my house. One of
them has stolen my bag of precious pearls. Please find out the thief.” So
Birbal went to the rich man’s house.
He called all the seven servants in a room. He gave a stick to each one of
them. Then he said, “These are magic sticks. Just now all these sticks are
equal in length. Keep them with you and return tomorrow. If there is a thief in
the house, his stick will grow an inch longer by tomorrow.”
The servant who had stolen the bag of pearls was scared. He thought, “If I cut
a piece of one inch from my stick, I won’t be caught.” So he cut the stick and
made it shorter by one inch. The next day Birbal collected the sticks from the
servants. He found that one servant’s stick was short by an inch. Birbal
pointed his finger at him and said, “Here is the thief.” The servant confessed
to his crime. He returned the bag of pearls. He was sent to jail.
When King Chow ordered
chopsticks made of ivory, Chi Tzu was most perturbed. For he feared that
once the king had ivory chopsticks he would not be contend with earthenware,
but would want cups of rhinoceros horn and jade ; and instead of beans and
vegetables, he would insist on such delicacies as elephant's tail and baby
leopard. He would hardly be willing either to wear rough homespun or live under
a thatched roof, but would demand silks and splendid mansions.
" It is fear of
what this will lead to " said Chi Tzu, " that upsets me. "
Five years later,
indeed, King chow had a garden filled with meat, tortured his subjects with hot
irons, and caroused in a lake of wine. And so he lost his kingdom.
