ENGLISH MORAL STORIES

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.