Look Before You Leap

Once a fox was roaming around in the dark. Unfortunately, he fell into a well. He tried his level best to come out but all in vain. So, he had no other alternative but to remain there till the next morning.

The next day, a goat came that way. She peeped into the well and saw the fox there. The goat asked "what are you doing there, Mr. Fox?"

The sly fox replied, "I came here to drink water. It is the best I have ever tasted. Come and see for yourself."

Without thinking even for a while, the goat jumped into the well, quenched her thirst and looked for a way to get out. But just like the fox, she also found herself helpless to come out.

Then the fox said, "I have an idea. You stand on your hind legs. I'll climb on your head and get out. Then I shall help you come out too."

The goat was innocent enough to understand the shrewdness of the fox and did as the fox said and help him get out of the well.

While walking away, the fox said, "Had you been intelligent enough, you would never have got in without seeing how to get out."

That's why we say, "Look before you leap".

Greed A Curse

Once upon a time there lived a cloth merchant in a village with his wife and two children. They were indeed quite well-off. They had a beautiful hen which laid an egg everyday. It was not an ordinary egg, rather, a golden egg. But the man was not satisfied with what he used to get daily. He was a get rich-trice kind of a person.

The man wanted to get all the golden eggs from his hen at one single go. So, one day he thought hard and at last clicked upon a plan. He decided to kill the hen and get all the eggs together.

So, the next day when the hen laid a golden egg, the man caught hold of it, took a sharp knife, chopped off its neck and cut its body open.

There was nothing but blood all around & no trace of any egg at all. He was highly grieved because now he would not get even one single egg.

His life was going on smoothly with one egg a day but now, he himself made his life miserable. The outcome of his greed was that he started becoming poorer & poorer day by day and ultimately became a pauper. How jinxed and how much foolish he was.

So, the moral of the story is- one who desires more, looses all. One should remain satisfied with what one gets.

The Right Choice

Once upon a time, a wise and generous king ruled Burma. One day, his prime minister retired. Now the king had to find his replacement. There were two names for the post- Leuk and Batuk.

Leuk was lazy but Batuk was hard working as well as intelligent. The king organized a boat race. But suddenly something seemed to disturb the calm waters of the river.

Leuk said that it was some monster and returned to the shore. Batuk dived into the river and took the culprit out. It was just a coconut, which the king himself had placed there.

Batuk was chosen as the prime minister.

A Hunter And A Rabbit

A hunter once caught a rabbit and was carrying it home for his evening meal.

After trying very hard to escape, the rabbit said to the hunter, "If you let me go, I'll show you where the rest of my companions are hidden, so your catch will be larger."

The hunter said, "Now you must die for betraying your friends." Saying this, the hunter killed the rabbit.

Two Travellers and Some Money

Two travelers were journeying together when one of them found a bag and said to another, "Look, I have found a bag of money."

The other man said, "Remember we are traveling together. So, don't say I've found it, say we have found it."

After some time, they heard that the police were looking for the thieves who had stolen a bag of money.

The man holding the bag said, "We are undone."

The other man said, "Don't say we are undone but I'm undone. When I wouldn't share any money, I'll not have any punishment."

How selfish the man was!

My Bed is a Boat

 

  

My bed is like a little boat;

Nurse helps me in when I embark;

She girds me in my sailor's coat

And starts me in the dark.

At night I go on board and say

Good-night to all my friends on shore;

I shut my eyes and sail away

And see and hear no more.

And sometimes things to bed I take,

As prudent sailors have to do;

Perhaps a slice of wedding-cake,

Perhaps a toy or two.

All night across the dark we steer;

But when the day returns at last,

Safe in my room beside the pier,

I find my vessel fast.

Strong or Weak

There was a proud teak tree in the forest. He was tall and strong. There was a small herb next to the tree.

The teak tree said, “I am very handsome and strong. No one can defeat me”. Hearing this the herb replied, “Dear friend, too much pride is harmful. Even the strong will fall one day”.

The teak ignored the herb’s words. He continued to praise himself.

A strong wind blew. The teak stood firmly. Even when it rained, the teak stood strong by spreading its leaves.

At the same time, the herb bowed low. The teak made fun of the herb.

One day there was a storm in the forest. The herb bowed low. As usual the teak did not want to bow.

The storm kept growing stronger. The teak could no longer bear it. He felt his strength giving way.

He fell down. This was the end of the proud tree. When everything was calm the herb stood straight. He looked around. He saw the proud teak had fallen.

True Wealth

One day a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the purpose of showing his son how the poor people live so he could be thankful for his wealth.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?” “It was great, Dad.” “Did you see how poor people can be?” the father asked. “Oh yeah” said the son. “So what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.” “We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.” “Our patio reaches to the
front yard and they have the whole horizon.” “We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.” “We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.” “We buy our food, but they grow theirs.” “We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

With this the boy’s father was speechless. Then his son added, “Thanks dad for showing me how poor we are.”

A Merchant and his Donkey

One beautiful spring morning, a merchant loaded his donkey with bags of salt to go to the market in order to sell them. The merchant and his donkey were walking along together. They had not walked far when they reached a river on the road.

Unfortunately, the donkey slipped and fell into the river and noticed that the bags of salt loaded on his back became lighter.

There was nothing the merchant could do, except return home where he loaded his donkey with more bags of salt. As they reached the slippery riverbank, now deliberately, the donkey fell into the river and wasted all the bags of salt on its back again.

The merchant quickly discovered the donkey’s trick. He then returned home again but re-loaded his donkey with bags of sponges.

The foolish, tricky donkey again set on its way. On reaching the river he again fell into the water. But instead of the load becoming lighter, it became heavier.

 

The merchant laughed at him and said: “You foolish donkey, your trick had been discovered, you should know that, those who are too clever sometimes over reach themselves.”

The Devoted Mother

A mother duck and her little ducklings were on their way to the lake one day. The ducklings were very happy following their mother and quack-quacking along the way.

All of a sudden the mother duck saw a fox in the distance. She was frightened and shouted, “Children, hurry to the lake. There’s a fox!”

The ducklings hurried towards the lake. The mother duck wondered what to do. She began to walk back and forth dragging one wing on the ground.

When the fox saw her he became happy. He said to himself, “It seems that she’s hurt and can’t fly! I can easily catch and eat her!” Then he ran towards her.

The mother duck ran, leading the fox away from the lake. The fox followed her. Now he wouldn’t be able to harm her ducklings. The mother duck looked towards her ducklings and saw that they had reached the lake. She was relieved, so she stopped and took a deep breath.

The fox thought she was tired and he came closer, but the mother duck quickly spread her wings and rose up in the air. She landed in the middle of the lake and her ducklings swam to her.

The fox stared in disbelief at the mother duck and her ducklings. He could not reach them because they were in the middle of the lake.

The Bundle of Sticks

A father had a family of sons who were always quarreling among themselves. When he failed to solve their fights with his advice, he decided to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks.

When they had done so, he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, but were not able to do it.

Next, he opened the bundle, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, and asked them to break it, and they could do so very easily.

He then told them: "My sons, if you stay together and help each other, you will be as strong as this bundle, and no enemy can beat you; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."

The sons understood the message, thanked, and promised the father to always be together no matter what.

Moral: Union gives strength.

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.

The Milkmaid and her Pail

Patty the Milkmaid was going to market carrying her milk in a pail on her head.

As she went along, she began calculating what she would do with the money she would get for the milk. I'll buy some fowls from Farmer Brown," said she, "and they will lay eggs each morning, which I will sell to the parson's wife..

With the money that I get from the sale of these eggs, I'll buy myself a new dimity frock and a chip hat; and when I go to market, won't all the young men come up and speak to me!

Polly Shaw will be so jealous; but I don't care. I shall just look at her and toss my head like this." As she spoke that, she tossed her head back and the pail fell off it, and all the milk was spilt!

MORAL: DO NOT COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY ARE HATCHED.

Don't Change the World

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost ahuge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?” The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself. There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself - your heart; and not the world.

A Hole in the Fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence....

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The day passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.”

The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

Friends and loved ones are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Water your relationships with kindness… and they will grow. So be careful little lips what you say…! And you won't chase friendships away.

The Goose with the Golden Eggs

Once when a Lion was asleep, a little

Once upon a time, a man and his wife had the good fortune to have a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough.

They imagined that if the bird must be able to lay golden eggs, its insides must be made of gold. And they thought that if they could get all that precious metal at once, they would get mighty rich very soon. So the man and his wife decided to kill the bird.

 

 However, upon cutting the goose open, they were shocked to find that its innards were like that of any other goose!

MORAL: THINK BEFORE YOU ACT