Sharpen your ‘axe’

November 7, 2019 by

 There was a newly joined woodcutter and the king was really impressed by his dedication towards his work. Out of encouragement, he started giving his best in work and cut 18 trees in the first month and the king was glad.

The next month he put in the same effort but could cut only 15 trees. And the third month, he still tried his best but could cut only 12 trees. The king visited him the third month and talked about his decrease in productivity.

He explained that he might have lost his strength or got too old to do the work. The king asked him “when was the last time you sharpened your ax?” To the surprise, he has not even done it once in the last three months. That was the only reason why he couldn’t cut more trees.

Moral: It is good that you put in a lot of effort and hard work to work towards your goals. But you should balance your life priorities and invest time with your family and save some time to relax which would boost up your productivity.

Filed Under: Competence

Value yourself

November 6, 2019 by

A speaker started off his seminar by showing a $20 to the public. He asked the people “who wants this?” There was no surprise to see that all of them lifted their hands. He offered to give the money to one of them but insisted that he will do something to it.

He crumpled the paper money and showed it again to the crowd and repeated the question. Still, everyone raised the hands. He then put the money into the ground and stepped on it and then raised it again and offered it to the public.

The people gathered there still showed interest to take that money despite seeing how dirty the note was. He told the public” No matter what I did to this money, you all still wanted this.

You all went in favor of my offer just because the value of the money never decreased despite what all I did to it. Similarly, value yourself despite the painful conditions or failures”

Moral: Believe in yourself and work hard to achieve success. Value yourself irrespective of the failures or obstacles and don’t degrade yourself just because of the temporary setbacks.

Filed Under: Character

A Dish of Ice Cream

November 5, 2019 by

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?”

“50 cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it.

“How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he inquired. Some people were now waiting for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient.

“35 cents,” she said brusquely.

The little boy again counted the coins. “I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and departed.

When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw.

There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were 15 cents – her tip.

Filed Under: Gratitude

Shake off problems

November 4, 2019 by

A man and his donkey were on the way to grazing while the donkey fell into a huge pit. The man was shaken and tried hard to pull off his favorite donkey up to the ground.

Despite his strenuous attempts, he failed to bring the donkey back. But he can’t leave the donkey to starve and die with pain for days.

So he decided to bury him alive and make his death smoother. So he started pouring soil over the donkey in the pit. When he poured the soil, the donkey felt the load and shakes it off and he steps on it.

He does the same every time when the soil was poured on his body. In the end, he reached the ground level and easily walked away to graze in the green pastures.

Moral: Don’t choose to live with your problem. Just shake off your problems and stand on it and step up in life after learning from them. Every bad experience is a new learning. So get the positives out of it and work towards your goals.

Filed Under: Perseverence

Struggles develop strength

November 3, 2019 by

One day a man was passing by a garden when he saw a butterfly cocoon which was about to get open.

He saw a small opening on it and watched the several hours of struggles the butterfly came through to get the body out of it. After many hours, it seemed that the butterfly stopped trying as there was no progress.

He thought to help the butterfly by cutting the cocoon with a scissor. So the butterfly came out easily but the wings were shriveled and the body was tiny and withered.

Unfortunately, the butterfly was not able to take flight and spend the rest of life crawling with a wounded body.

Moral: This is nature’s way of telling the importance of struggles in life. Sometimes, different kinds of struggles are needed in life to make you stronger in the future. Never feel disappointed in life and stop trying when life offers you struggles but keep on fighting until you see success.

Filed Under: Hard Work

Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand

November 2, 2019 by

Once a professor entered the classroom with a glass jar, rocks, pebbles, and sand. The students were amused to see what he was up to. First, he started filling the rock parts into the jar until he couldn’t add any more.

He asked the students if the jar was full and everybody nodded yes. He then started putting the pebbles inside the jar which went inside through the small gaps and he shakes the jar to allow the pebbles to get into those vacant spaces in between the rocks.

He asked the same question to the students and they again said that the jar was full. Finally, he poured the sand inside the jar which went through the minute gaps and got filled in the jar.

The professor explained that this is how you should set priorities in life. Rock is like your family, while pebbles are like your career while sand is like the least priorities in life and unnecessary quarrels and egos.

If you put sand on the jar first, it will get easily filled up leaving no space for rocks and pebbles.

Moral: You should identify your priorities in life and develop a good strategy to work towards fulfilling it rather than wasting your time and effort on unnecessary aspects of life.

Filed Under: Prioritize

The Group of Frogs

November 1, 2019 by

Some frogs were traveling through woods and two of them accidentally fell into a pit. The other frogs which were safe upside understood how deep the pit was and saw no hope for the frogs to escape out of it.

Both of these frogs started trying to get out of the pit but failed many times. The frogs on the safe side shouted at them to give up the pain of trying as it was not possible.

Eventually, one frog heard the other frogs and decided to stop trying and fell down to death. However, the other frog went on trying and at last managed to reach the top.

The other frogs asked him, “Did you not hear us?” He explained that he was deaf and thought other frogs were encouraging him to get out.

Moral: Some people around you may ask you to be on a safer side always and stop trying and taking risks. However, there is no gain without pain. So try hard to achieve success in life despite what life offers you.

Filed Under: Perseverence

On God’s Time

October 31, 2019 by

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.”

Filed Under: Story Telling, Storytelling

Wise answer

October 30, 2019 by
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.

Filed Under: Story Telling, Storytelling

A Wise Old Owl

October 29, 2019 by

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.

Filed Under: Story Telling, Storytelling