A king and his dog

A Long time ago a very cruel king named Varga was ruling the city of Sangkar. All citizens were fearful because of his cruelty.

Varga has a dog named Mog, which he used to love more than anything, one fateful morning Mog died. Varga organized last rituals for the dog, entire city came to a cremation ground. Varga was very happy to see that people love him so much and he felt he is the most popular king in the world. After few days Varga died, but no one came for his funerals.

Moral: Respect is something you have to earn, you cannot force it on others to respect you. There is a thin line between Fear and Respect, every one of us should understand it and do necessary corrections in our personalities.

Emperor and his minister

Once Emperor Akbar became very angry at his favorite minister Birbal. He asked Birbal to leave the kingdom and go away. Accepting the command of the Emperor, Birbal left the kingdom and started working in a farmer’s farm in an unknown village far away under a different identity.

As months passed, Akbar started to miss Birbal. He was struggling to solve many issues in the empire without Birbal’s advice. He regretted a decision, asking Birbal to leave the empire in anger. So Akbar sent his soldiers to find Birbal, but they failed to find him. No one knew where Birbal was. Akbar finally found a trick. He sent a message to the head of every village to send a pot full of the wit to the Emperor. If the pot full of wit can not be sent, fill the pot with diamonds and jewels.

This message also reached Birbal, who lived in one of the villages. The people of the village got together. All started talking about what to do now? The wit is not a thing, which can be filled in the pot. How will we arrange for diamonds and jewels to fill the pot and send to the Emperor? Birbal who was sitting among the villagers said, “Give me the pot, I will fill the wit in one month’s end”. Everyone trusted Birbal and agreed to give him a chance. They still didn’t know his identity.

Birbal took the pot with him and went back to the farm. He had planted watermelons on his farm. He selected a small watermelon and without cutting it from the plant, he put that in the pot. He started looking after it by providing water and fertilizer regularly. Within a few days, the watermelon grew into a pot so much that it was impossible to get it out of the pot.

Soon, the watermelon reached to the same size as the pot from inside. Birbal then cut the watermelon from the vine and separated it with the pot. Later, he sent a pot to Emperor Akbar with a message that “Please remove the wit without cutting it from the pot and without breaking the pot”.

Akbar watched the watermelon in the pot and realized that this can only be Birbal’s Work. Akbar himself came to the village, took Birbal back with him.

Moral: Don’t hasten the decision. Think hard to find a solution for the strangest situations.

Smart students

One night four college students were out partying late night and didn’t study for the test which was scheduled for the next day. In the morning, they thought of a plan.

They made themselves look dirty with grease and dirt.

Then they went to the Dean and said they had gone out to a wedding last night and on their way back the tire of their car burst and they had to push the car all the way back. So they were in no condition to take the test.

The Dean thought for a minute and said they can have the re-test after 3 days. They thanked him and said they will be ready by that time.

On the third day, they appeared before the Dean. The Dean said that as this was a Special Condition Test, all four were required to sit in separate classrooms for the test. They all agreed as they had prepared well in the last 3 days.

The Test consisted of only 2 questions with the total of 100 Points:

1) Your Name? __________ (1 Points)

2) Which tire burst? __________ (99 Points)
Options – (a) Front Left (b) Front Right (c) Back Left (d) Back Right

Moral of the story:

Take responsibility or you will learn your lesson.

On God’s Time

A man walked to the top of a hill to talk to God.

The man asked, “God, what’s a million years to you?” and God said, “A minute.”

Then the man asked, “Well, what’s a million dollars to you?” and God said, “A penny.”

Then the man asked, “God…..can I have a penny?” and God said, “Sure…..in a minute.”

Wise answer

Let us enjoy reading this story of A Wise Counting.

Emperor Akbar was in the habit of putting riddles and puzzles to his courtiers. He often asked questions which were strange and witty. It took much wisdom to answer these questions.

Once he asked a very strange question. The courtiers were dumb folded by his question.

Akbar glanced at his courtiers. As he looked, one by one the heads began to hang low in search of an answer. It was at this moment that Birbal entered the courtyard. Birbal who knew the nature of the emperor quickly grasped the situation and asked, “May I know the question so that I can try for an answer”.

Akbar said, “How many crows are there in this city?”

Without even a moment’s thought, Birbal replied “There are fifty thousand five hundred and eighty nine crows, my lord”.

“How can you be so sure?” asked Akbar.

Birbal said, “Make you men count, My lord. If you find more crows it means some have come to visit their relatives here. If you find less number of crows it means some have gone to visit their relatives elsewhere”.

Akbar was pleased very much by Birbal’s wit.

MORAL : A witty answer will serve its purpose.

A Wise Old Owl

There was an old owl that lived in an oak. Everyday he saw incidents happening around him. Yesterday he saw a boy helping an old man to carry a heavy basket. Today he saw a girl shouting at her mother. The more he saw the less he spoke.

As he spoke less, he heard more. He heard people talking and telling stories. He heard a woman saying that an elephant jumped over a fence. He also heard a man saying that he had never made a mistake.

The old owl had seen and heard about what happened to people. Some became better and some became worse. But the old owl had become wiser each and every day.

Moral of the story :

You should be observant, talk less but listen more. This will make you a wise person.

A limit to kindness

Recently Steve had a car accident. So he put his car in the garage to carry out the repair work. Since he had to go to the job daily, he decided that until the car is ready, he will travel by the metro train. One day, he noticed a homeless guy at the train station at night. He felt pity for him, so he gave him some change from his pocket.

The homeless guy thanked him for it. Next day again, he noticed the homeless guy at the same place. This time Steve though to get him something to eat, so he went outside the station and brought him a meal. The homeless guy thanked him for his kindness. But Steve got curious and asked him, “How did you get to this point?”

The homeless guy looked up at him and with a smile, he said, “By Showing Love.” Steve didn’t understand it, so he asked him, “What do you mean by that?” The homeless guy replied that “Throughout my whole life, I made sure that everyone was happy. No matter what was going right or wrong in my life, I always helped everyone.”

Steve asked him, “Do you regret it?” To which the homeless man replied, “No, It just hurts my soul that the very people I gave the shirt off my back to wouldn’t give me a sleeve of that same shirt when I was in need. Son, It is better to build your own house and invite someone in for shelter than to hand them your bricks while you are building yours. Because one day you will turn around and look at the spot where you had planned to build your house. It will be an empty lot. Then you are the one looking for bricks.”

Steve understood what the homeless guy meant and thanked him for the good advice.

Moral: Helping others is not a bad thing at all. But Sometimes, while we are helping others, we forget our own problems and needs. One must remember that sometimes sharing is better than giving away. You can do a lot more by being in a strong position instead of bringing yourself into a weaker situation.

Bell The Cat

There was a grocery shop in a town. Plenty of mice lived in that grocery shop. Food was in plenty for them. They ate everything and spoiled all the bags. They also wasted the bread, biscuits and fruits of the shop.

The grocer got really worried. So, he thought “I should buy a cat and let it stay at the grocery. Only then I can save my things.”

He bought a nice, big fat cat and let him stay there. The cat had a nice time hunting the mice and killing them. The mice could not move freely now. They were afraid that anytime the cat would eat them up.

The mice wanted to do something. They held a meeting and all of them tweeted “We must get rid of the cat. Can someone give a suggestion”?

All the mice sat and brooded. A smart looking mouse stood up and said, “The cat moves softly. That is the problem. If we can tie a bell around her neck, then things will be fine. We can know the movements of the cat”.

“Yes, that is answer,” stated all the mice. An old mouse slowly stood up and asked, “Who would tie the bell?” After some moments there was no one there to answer this question.

MORAL : Empty solutions are of no worth.

A farmer and a snake

A Farmer walked through his field one cold winter morning. On the ground lay a Snake, stiff and frozen with the cold. The Farmer knew how deadly the Snake could be, and yet he picked it up and put it in his bosom to warm it back to life.

The Snake soon revived, and when it had enough strength, bit the man who had been so kind to it. The bite was deadly and the Farmer felt that he must die. As he drew his last breath, he said to those standing around, “Learn from my fate not to take pity on a scoundrel”.

Moral: There are some who never changes their nature, regardless of how good we behave with them. Always stay alert and maintain the distance from those who are there only thinking about their own benefits.

A king and a parrot

Once upon a time, there was a king who had gone to visit neighboring kingdoms. He was gifted a pair of baby Macaw Parrots by the king of the last kingdom where he was visiting. They were the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. So, upon returning to his kingdom, he called for a bird trainer and asked him to train macaw parrots.

The king also arranged a place in the palace garden for the parrots. He often looked at them from his palace window. As time passed, one day the trainer came to the palace and informed the king that though one of the parrots was flying majestically high in the sky, the other one was not moving from its branch since the day it had arrived.

Upon hearing this, the king summoned trainer and healers from the nearby kingdoms. They all tried their best, but couldn’t make the parrot fly! He even asked his courtiers to try to find a way to make the parrot fly but they all failed. The parrot was not moving from his branch at all. Finally, after trying everything, the king thought that maybe he needs someone who may be more familiar with natural habitat. He asked his courtier to get a farmer from the countryside and take him to the parrot to see if he can understand the problem with the parrot.

The next morning, the king was thrilled to see the parrot flying high above the palace gardens. He asked his servant to call that farmer to meet him. The servant quickly went and located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, “How did you make the parrot fly?”

With his hands folded with respect, the farmer said to the king, “It was very easy, your majesty. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting.”

Moral: We are all gifted with energy to find a success in our life, but fail to gather a courage which is required to reach heights of success and end up clinging to the things that are familiar to us. We need to free ourselves from our comfort zone to explore new opportunities and find a success beyond our capacity.