The Lion And The Mouse

Once when a Lion was asleep, a little Mouse began running up and down upon him. This soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him 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, but I may be able to do you a good turn one of these days?"

The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go.

Sometime later a few hunters captured the King and tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on.

Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lionwas, ran up tohim and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. "Was I not right?" said the little Mouse, very happy to help the Lion.

MORAL: Little friends may prove great friends.

BEST BUDDIES

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 he 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.                         

                                                    
"Moral: Do not value the things you have in your life. But value who you have in your life".

Mother’s Sacrifice

My mom only had one eye.  I hated her… she was such an embarrassment.  My mom ran a small shop at a flea market.  She collected little weeds and such to sell… anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment. There was this one day during elementary school.            I remember that it was field day, and my mom came.                                             I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school… “Your mom only has one eye?!” and they taunted me.         I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, “Mom, why don’t you have the other eye?! You’re only going to make me a laughingstock. Why don’t you just die?”  My mom did not respond. I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I’d wanted to say all this time. Maybe it was because my mom hadn’t punished me, but I didn’t think that I had hurt her feelings very badly. That night… I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her, and then turned away. Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so,     I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty. Then I studied really hard.    I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I’m living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it’s a place that doesn’t remind me of my mom.  This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, when someone unexpected came to see me “What?! Who’s this?!” It was my mother… Still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom’s eye. And I asked her, “Who are you? I don’t know you!!” as if I tried to make that real. I screamed at her “How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! Get out of here now!!” And to this, my mother quietly answered, “oh, I’m so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,” and she disappeared. Thank goodness… she doesn’t recognize me. I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn’t going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life. Then a wave of relief came upon me… one day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house…just out of curiosity there,        I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand…. it was a letter to me.

THE HUNTER AND THE DOVES

There was a huge banyan tree standing on the outer boundaries of a village. All kinds of birds had their homes in this tree. Even the travellers would come and relax under its cool shade during the hot summer days.

Once, a fowler came to take a rest there. He also had a huge net with him. He set his net under the tree and strewed some grains of rice to lure the birds. A crow living in the tree saw it and cautioned his friends not to go down to eat the rice.

But at the same moment, a flock of doves came flying over the banyan tree. They saw grains of rice strewn around and without losing a moment, descended on the ground to eat the grains of rice. As soon as they started eating the rice, a huge net fell over them and they were all trapped. They tried everything to come out of the net, but in vain. They saw the fowler coming towards them. He was very happy to find a large number of doves trapped inside the net.

However, the king of doves was very intelligent and clever. He said to other doves, "We must do something immediately to free ourselves from the clutches of this fowler. I've an idea. We should all fly up together clutching the net in our beaks. We will decide our next course of action later. Now, come on friends, let's fly."

So each dove picked up a part of the huge net in his beak and they all flew up together. Seeing the birds flying along with the whole net, the fowler was surprised. He could never imagine this. He ran after the flying birds, shouting madly, but could not catch them. Soon the birds flew out of his sight.

When the king dove saw that the fowler had given up the chase, he said to his friends, "Now we all have to get out of this net. There lives a mouse on the nearby hillock. He is my friend. Let's go to him for his help."

All the doves flew on to meet the mouse. When the mouse heard the doves making noise in front of his hole, he got frightened and hid himself deeper into the hole. He came out only when he heard the king dove saying, "Friend, it's 1, the king dove. We're in great difficulty. Please come out and help us."

Hearing the dove, his friend's voice, the mouse came out of his hole and saw the king dove and his friends trapped in the net.

"Oh!", said the mouse, "Who's done all this to you?"

The king dove narrated the whole story. The mouse immediately started nibbling at the net around the king dove. The king dove said, "No, my friend. First set my followers free. A king cannot keep his subjects in pain and enjoy the freedom for himself."

The mouse praised the king dove for his nobleness and nibbled at the portion of the net, which would set free the other doves first. And only at last, he freed the king dove.

All the doves were very grateful to the mouse. They thanked the mouse and then flew to their destination happily.

A POOR BRAHMIN'S DREAM

Once upon a time, there lived a poor Brahmin in a village. His name was Swabhavakripna. He was all alone in this world. He had no relatives or friends. He used to beg for his living. Whatever food he got as alms, he kept in an earthen pot and hung it beside his bed. Whenever he felt hungry he took out some food from the pot and ate it.

One night, the Brahmin lay on his bed and soon he was fast asleep. He began to dream-He was no longer a poor Brahmin. He wore good clothes. He was the owner of a shop. Hundreds of customers came to his shop. Soon he became richer than before
. He purchased many buffaloes and cows. Very soon the buffaloes and cows had their young ones.

Those young ones grew and became buffaloes and cows. The buffaloes and cows gave milk. He made a lot of butter and curd from the milk. He sold butter and curd in the market. Soon he became richer then ever before. He built a big house for himself. Then he married a beautiful girl. Soon they had their children. The children played around all day making noise. He then scolded them and asked them to keep quiet. But they won't listen. So he picked up a stick and ran after them.

The Brahmin began to move his legs rapidly while he was still asleep. In doing so, he hit the earthen pot with one of his legs which was full of food. The pot broke and the food contents were spilled all over the floor. The Brahmin woke up. He saw that he was still in the bed. All the edible items kept in the pot were scattered on the ground and became unfit for eating. All this happened because of his day dreaming

Akbar birbal

A farmer and his neighbor once went to Emperor Akbar's court with a complaint.

"Your Majesty, I bought a well from him," said the farmer pointing to his neighbor," and now he wants me to pay for the water."

"That's right, your Majesty," said the neighbor. "I sold him the well but not the water!"

The Emperor asked Birbal to settle the dispute.

"Didn't you say that you sold your well to this farmer?" Birbal asked the neighbor. "So, the well belongs to him now, but you have kept your water in his well. Is that right? Well, in that case you will have to pay him a rent or take your water out at once."

The neighbor realized that he was outwitted. He quickly apologized and gave up his claim.

THE DONKEY AND THE LEOPARD'S SKIN

There was a washerman. His name was Shuddhapata. He had a donkey. The donkey had an insatiable appetite for food, but was least interested in doing his master's work. And Shuddhapata was very poor. It was not possible for him to feed his always-hungry and lazy donkey. Therefore, as a result the donkey became lean and thin.

Once the washerman had to go to the town to purchase soap etc. for washing clothes. He had to pass through a jungle on his way to the town. While returning from the town, he found a leopard's skin in the jungle. He immediately thought of a plan to feed his lazy donkey.

When the night fell, he donned his donkey with the leopard's skin and drove him to the nearby fields. The farmers were frightened to see a leopard roaming in their fields and ran away. The donkey ate his fill and returned home in the early hours of morning. This continued for months together. Soon the donkey became fat and healthy. No farmer ever dared come near him. The donkey passed his days and nights happily.

One night, as the donkey was feeding itself in a neighbouring field, it heard another donkey braying in a nearby village. The donkey became very happy to hear it and instinctively started braying in reply, "Dheechoon, Dheechoon". Soon the farmers realised that the animal they were frightened of was not a leopard but a donkey. They became very angry. They came out of their houses with lathis in their hands and beat the donkey so badly that it died on the spot.