Once upon a time, there was a man who had a big garden. He had planted many fruit trees and cared for them till they bore fruits. Now he wanted to harvest the fruits and sell them to make money for his family.

One fine day, while picking the fruits with his son, the man saw a stranger sitting on the branch of a tree and picking fruits. The man became angry and shouted, “Hey you! What are you doing on my tree? Aren’t you ashamed of stealing?”

The stranger sitting on the branch looked at the gardener, but didn’t reply, and continued picking the fruits. The gardener was very angry and shouted again, “For a whole year I have taken care of these trees. You have no right to take the fruits without my permission. So come down at once!”

The stranger on the tree answered, “Why should I come down? This is the garden of God and I am the servant of God, so I have the right to pick these fruits. You should not interfere with the work of God and his servant.”

The gardener was very surprised at this answer and thought of a plan. He told the stranger to come down from the tree. As the stranger climbed down the tree, the gardener tied him to the tree and began beating him with a stick. The stranger began to scream, “Why are you beating me? You have no right to do this.”

The gardener paid no attention and continued beating him. The stranger screamed, “Don’t you fear God? You are beating an innocent man. The gardener answered, “Why should I fear? This wood in my hand belongs to God and I am the servant of God. You shouldn’t interfere with the work of God and his servant.”

The stranger hesitated and then spoke, “Wait. Don’t beat me, I am sorry for taking the fruits. This is your garden and I should seek your permission before taking the fruits. So, please forgive me and set me free.” The gardener smiled and said, “Don’t use God’s name to justify your ill-conceived actions.”

Then the gardener untied him and let him go free.

Sam was a greedy and selfish man. He always desired to have lots and lots of money and never hesitated to cheat others to make money. Also, he never wished to share anything with others. He paid very low wages to his servants.

However, one day, he learned a lesson that changed his life forever.

It so happened that one day, a small bag that belonged to Sam was missing. The bag had 50 gold coins in it. Sam searched high and low for the bag, but could not find it. Sam’s friends and neighbours also joined in the search, but all their efforts were in vain.

After a couple of days, the ten year old daughter of a man working for Sam found the bag. She told her father about it. Her father identified the bag as the one that was missing, and immediately decided to take it to his master.

He gave the bag back to his master Sam, and asked him to check whether the bag had 50 gold coins. Sam was exultant to get the coins back, but he decided to play a trick. He shouted at his worker, “there were 75 gold coins in this bag but you gave me only 50! Where are the other coins? You have stolen them!”

The worker was shocked to hear this and pleaded his innocence. Selfish and greedy, Sam did not accept the worker’s story, and decided to take the issue to court.

The judge heard both sides. He questioned the daughter and the worker about the number of coins they had found in the bag, and they assured it was only 50.

He cross-examined Sam and Sam replied, “Yes my lord, I had 75 gold coins in my bag, and they gave me only 50. Hence, it is quite obvious that they have stolen 25 coins!”

The judge then asked, “Are you sure that your bag had 75 coins?”

Sam nodded vigorously.

The judge then made his judgment.

“Since Sam lost a bag of 75 gold coins and the bag found by the girl had only 50 coins, it is obvious that the bag that was found does not belong to Sam. It was lost by someone else. If anyone finds a bag of 75 gold coins, I will declare that it belongs to Sam. As there are no complaints about the loss of 50 coins, I order the girl and his father to take those 50 coins as a token of appreciation for their honesty!”

Honesty will always be rewarded and greed punished!

Patty the Milkmaid was going to the market carrying 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 the 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.” Short Stories

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.

Once when a lion, the king of the jungle, was asleep, a little mouse began running up and down on him. This soon awakened the lion, who placed his huge paw on the mouse, and opened his big jaws to swallow him.

“Pardon, O King!” cried the little mouse. “Forgive me this time. I shall never repeat it and I shall never forget your kindness. And who knows, I may be able to give you a good turn one of these days!”

The lion was so tickled by the idea of the mouse being able to help him that he lifted his paw and let him go.

Sometime later, a few hunters captured the lion, and tied him to a tree. After that they went in search of a wagon, to take him to the zoo.

Just then the little mouse happened to pass by. On seeing the lion’s plight, he ran up to him and gnawed away the ropes that bound him, the king of the jungle.

“Was I not right?” said the little mouse, very happy to help the lion.

Moral: Small acts of kindness will be rewarded greatly.

Once upon a time, there lived a very cunning and mischievous fox. He used to speak to other animals sweetly and gain their trust, before playing tricks on them.

One day the fox met a stork. He befriended the stork and acted like a very good friend. Soon, he invited the stork to have a feast with him. The stork happily accepted the invitation.

The day of the feast came, and the stork went to the fox’s house. To her surprise and disappointment, the fox said that he could not make a big feast as promised, and just offered some soup. When he brought the soup out of the kitchen, the stork saw that it was in a shallow bowl!

The poor stork could not have any soup with its long bill, but the fox easily licked the soup from the plate. As the stork just touched the soup with the tip of its bill, the fox asked her, “How is the soup? Don’t you like it?”

The hungry stork replied, “Oh it is good, but my stomach is upset, and I can’t take any more soup!”

“I’m sorry for troubling you,” said the fox.

The stork replied, “Oh dear, please don’t say sorry. I have some health problem and cannot enjoy what you offer.”

She left the place after thanking the fox, and inviting him to her house for dinner.

Cunning Fox and the Clever Stork StoryThe day arrived and the fox reached the stork’s place. After exchanging pleasantries, the stork served soup for both of them, in a narrow jar with a long neck. She was able to have the soup very easily with her long bill, but the fox obviously could not.

After finishing hers, the stork asked the fox if he was enjoying the soup. The fox remembered the feast he himself had given the stork, and felt very ashamed. He stammered, “I…I’d better leave now. I have a tummy ache.”

Humiliated, he left the place running.

Moral: One bad turn begets another.

One afternoon, a fox was walking through the forest and spotted a bunch of grapes hanging from a lofty branch. “Just the thing to quench my thirst,” said the fox.

Taking a few steps back, the fox jumped and just missed the hanging grapes. Again, the fox took a few paces back and tried to reach them, but still failed.

Finally, giving up, the fox turned up his nose and said, “They’re probably sour anyway.” Then he walked away.

Moral: It’s Easy To Despise What You Cannot Have.

A note about the story
The ‘Fox and the Grapes’ is often cited as an example for cognitive dissonance: the discomfort people experience when their beliefs/actions are at odds with other beliefs/actions. In the story, the fox sees some grapes on a vine and wants to eat them. He tries to jump up, but cannot reach them because they are too high. When he realizes he will not be able to eat any grapes, the fox becomes disdainful; he tells himself that those grapes were sour and not worthy of desire anyway.

Psychologist and teacher Leon Festinger pointed out in 1957, that often, people hold two conflicting beliefs, or they believe one thing but do something that is against that belief. The resulting cognitive dissonance is psychologically distressful, and we often try to alleviate it by justifying our actions or changing our beliefs. Either way, the goal is to get our beliefs and actions in line with each other.

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer in a village, beside a forest. He had a big garden that had an old apple tree and other plants, trees and beautiful flowers. When the farmer was a little boy, he spent much of his time playing with the apple tree. Those days, the apple tree had given the choice of apples to him. However, as time passed, the apple tree became old and stopped bearing fruits.

Now that the farmer was not getting any apples from the tree, he decided that the tree was useless. Therefore, he decided to cut the tree and use its wood to make some new furniture. He felt that since the tree was old and huge, he did not have to cure it, and it would make great furniture. He forgot that as a boy, he had spent his entire childhood climbing the tree and eating its apples.

Now the apple tree was home to several little animals in the neighborhood. This included squirrels, sparrows and a huge variety of birds and insects. When the farmer took his axe and began chopping the tree, all the little animals came rushing down.

They all began to plead with the farmer. They gathered round the farmer and said, “Please don’t cut the tree. We used to play with you when you were small, under this very tree. This is our home and we have no other place to go”.

The farmer was adamant. He raised his axe and the commotion grew.

“Please don’t chop and destroy my home and kids,” cried the squirrel.

“Please don’t chop and destroy my nest,” cried the little birds.

“Please don’t cut the apple tree,” cried the grasshopper.

The farmer, however, forgot his childhood and his animal friends. He began to chop the tree harder. All the little animals became desperate, and wanted to protect the apple tree at any cost.

The little animals said, “We will sing for you when you are toiling away in the fields. We will look after your little boy. He will not cry, but instead will be entertained and happy. You will like our songs and will not feel tired.”

However, their cries for help fell on deaf ears. Despite all their requests, the farmer continued to chop down the tree.

All of a sudden, he noticed something shiny. On inspecting it, he realized that it was a beehive, full of honey. He took a little and put it in his mouth. The taste of the honey woke up the little boy in him. Suddenly, the memories of his childhood came rushing back. The honey tasted so good that he wanted more. It brought a sense of happiness to him. He smiled and exclaimed, “This tastes amazing.”

Realizing the change in the farmer’s attitude, the little animals spoke in unison: The bee said, “I will always provide you with sweet honey.” The squirrel said, “I will share any amount of nuts that you want.” The birds cried, “We will sing as many songs as you want.”

Finally, the farmer realized his folly, and put down his axe. He understood that the tree was home to many lovely animals that provided him with so many things. He wanted his little boy to have the childhood that he had.

The farmer realized that the apple tree was not that fruitless. The little boy in him saved the apple tree.

He threw away the axe and said to the little creatures, “I promise that I would never cut this tree. I have realized my mistake and you all can now live in peace and harmony.”

The little creatures thanked the bee profusely. If the farmer had not found the beehive, they would have been homeless by now. They continued living happily in the old apple tree.

Moral: Each and every living thing in nature is of some use: we should not destroy any living thing.

The Ant and the Dove

One hot day, an ant was searching for some water. After walking around for some time, she came to a spring. To reach the spring, she had to climb up a blade of grass. While making her way up, she slipped and fell into the water.

She could have drowned if a dove up a nearby tree had not seen her. Seeing that the ant was in trouble, the dove quickly plucked a leaf and dropped it into the water near the struggling ant. The ant moved towards the leaf and climbed up onto it. Soon, the leaf drifted to dry ground, and the ant jumped out. She was safe at last.

Just at that time, a hunter nearby was about to throw his net over the dove, hoping to trap it.

Guessing what he was about to do, the ant quickly bit him on the heel. Feeling the pain, the hunter dropped his net. The dove was quick to fly away to safety.

One good turn begets another.