In today’s age of busy schedules and omnipresent technology, we have given in and let our children be entertained by the internet. However, there is nothing like spending a little quality time with your little one with some stories and imparting some wisdom along the way. You might want to tell your child a story with moral values that are similar to yours.
1. The Ant And The Grasshopper
One bright day in late autumn a family of Ants were bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.
"What!" cried the Ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"
"I didn't have time to store up any food," whined the Grasshopper; "I was so busy making music that before I knew it the summer was gone."
The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.
"Making music, were you?" they cried. "Very well; now dance!" And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and went on with their work.
There's a time for work and a time for play.
2. The Needle Tree
There were once two brothers who lived on the edge of a forest. The elder brother was very mean to his younger brother and ate up all the food and took all his good clothes. One day, the elder brother went into the forest to find some firewood to sell in the market. As he went around chopping the branches of a tree after tree, he came upon a magical tree. The tree said to him, ‘Oh kind sir, please do not cut my branches. If you spare me, I will give you my golden apples’. The elder brother agreed but was disappointed with the number apples the tree gave him. Greed overcame him, and he threatened to cut the entire trunk if the tree didnt give him more apples. The magical tree instead showered upon the elder brother hundreds upon hundreds of tiny needles. The elder brother lay on the ground crying in pain as the sun began to lower down the horizon.
The younger brother grew worried and went in search of his elder brother. He found him with hundreds of needles on his skin. He rushed to his brother and removed each needle with painstaking love. After he finished, the elder brother apologised for treating him badly and promised to be better. The tree saw the change in the elder brother’s heart and gave them all the golden apples they could ever need.
Moral Of The Story: It is important to be kind and gracious as it will always be rewarded.
3. Jack and the Beanstalk
Once upon a time there lived a poor widow and her son Jack. One day, Jack’s mother told him to sell their only cow. Jack went to the market and on the way he met a man who wanted to buy his cow. Jack asked, “What will you give me in return for my cow?” The man answered, “I will give you five magic beans!” Jack took the magic beans and gave the man the cow. But when he reached home, Jack’s mother was very angry. She said, “You fool! He took away your cow and gave you some beans!” She threw the beans out of the window. Jack was very sad and went to sleep without dinner.
The next day, when Jack woke up in the morning and looked out of the window, he saw that a huge beanstalk had grown from his magic beans! He climbed up the beanstalk and reached a kingdom in the sky. There lived a giant and his wife. Jack went inside the house and found the giant’s wife in the kitchen. Jack said, “Could you please give me something to eat? I am so hungry!” The kind wife gave him bread and some milk.
While he was eating, the giant came home. The giant was very big and looked very fearsome. Jack was terrified and went and hid inside. The giant cried, “Fee-fifo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” The wife said, “There is no boy in here!” So, the giant ate his food and then went to his room. He took out his sacks of gold coins, counted them and kept them aside. Then he went to sleep. In the night, Jack crept out of his hiding place, took one sack of gold coins and climbed down the beanstalk. At home, he gave the coins to his mother. His mother was very happy and they lived well for sometime.
Climbed the beanstalk and went to the giant’s house again. Once again, Jack asked the giant’s wife for food, but while he was eating the giant returned. Jack leapt up in fright and went and hid under the bed. The giant cried, “Fee-fifo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” The wife said, “There is no boy in here!” The giant ate his food and went to his room. There, he took out a hen. He shouted, “Lay!” and the hen laid a golden egg. When the giant fell asleep, Jack took the hen and climbed down the beanstalk. Jack’s mother was very happy with him.
After some days, Jack once again climbed the beanstalk and went to the giant’s castle. For the third time, Jack met the giant’s wife and asked for some food. Once again, the giant’s wife gave him bread and milk. But while Jack was eating, the giant came home. “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!” cried the giant. “Don’t be silly! There is no boy in here!” said his wife.
The giant had a magical harp that could play beautiful songs. While the giant slept, Jack took the harp and was about to leave. Suddenly, the magic harp cried, “Help master! A boy is stealing me!” The giant woke up and saw Jack with the harp. Furious, he ran after Jack. But Jack was too fast for him. He ran down the beanstalk and reached home. The giant followed him down. Jack quickly ran inside his house and fetched an axe. He began to chop the beanstalk. The giant fell and died.
Jack and his mother were now very rich and they lived happily ever after.
4. The King and the seeds
Once there lived a great king renowned for being wise and intelligent. As the thought of retiring came to the king’s mind, he spread the word across his kingdom that he was soon to appoint a new successor for his throne.
The news of the search for a new successor caused a great stirring across the land. The king was considered to be the wisest to have come to the power. His clever policies had helped to build a just and content nation over the course of his ruling. Very few were surprised to know that he was to eschew the traditional route of the family for the search of the one worthy of the throne.
The king called the youth of the nation together and gathered them in the royal hall. The king gave each of them a seed and said “ This is a very special seed. I want all of you to plant it, take care of it and come back after a year with what you have. Based on what you bring back, I will decide the next king of the country.”
Everyone left the gathering with a seed. They excitedly planted their seed and waited for it to grow. As the months passed by the youth of the country was talking about how their plant has grown tremendously beautiful. Among all the youth, there was a young man whose seed hadn’t even sprouted. Although, he used to water the seed every day and did everything to make it grow, the seed would grow. He could hear people talking about their plants. But still, he has nothing.
A year had passed from the day the seed was distributed. All the youth was summoned to the palace where they were to display the outcome of their seeds. The young man, whose seed did not grow as other, was very reluctant to even attend the gathering. But, his mother insisted him to go to the palace with what he had because his efforts had been true and that there was no shame in showing that. The young man went to the palace with his pot of soil.
In the gathering, he was amazed to see the variety of beautiful plants others had grown. The young man put his empty pot on the floor while a number of the others were laughing at him as he did so. The young man was embarrassed to be there.
When the king arrived in the hall and inspected each and every pot. He slowly examined all of the different foliage and the beaming children that accompanied them. The young man was hiding in the back trying to go unseen, but the king found him, and gave pause when he did. Walking over, he eyed the young man and his plant closely but he said nothing. He ordered his guards to bring the young man to the front of the room.
The young man was very sad as the king had noticed his utter failure to grow a seed. Arriving at the front, the guards let go of him, leaving him standing alone before all of the others, many of whom were snickering and pointing. The king called the young man closer. He held his hand and raised it and said loudly “Behold, everyone, your new king!”
The king said “One year ago, I gave everyone a seed. I instructed you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back. What you were unaware of, was that every seed I handed out had been boiled beforehand so that none of them were fit to grow! All of you after a year have brought me trees, plants and flowers, born of your dishonesty. The seeds which grew these plants were not the ones I provided you. Therefore, look upon the only honest one among you, this young man, and know now why he deserves to be your ruler.”
5. Counting Wisely
Akbar once put a question to his court that left everyone puzzled. As they all tried to figure out the answer, Birbal walked and asked what the matter was. And so they told him the question.
‘How many crows are there in the city?’
Birbal immediately smiled, went up to Akbar and announced that the answer to his questions was twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-three. When asked how he knew the answer, Birbal replied, ‘Ask your men to count the number of crows. If there are more, then the crows’ relatives from outside the city are visiting them. If there are fewer, then the crows are visiting their relatives outside the city.’ Pleased with the answer, Akbar presented Birbal with a ruby and pearl chain.
6. The Tortoise And The Hare
A Hare was making fun of the Tortoise one day for being so slow.
"Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh.
"Yes," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it."
The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off.
The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a Hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the Tortoise should catch up.
The Tortoise meanwhile kept going slowly but steadily, and, after a time, passed the place where the Hare was sleeping. But the Hare slept on very peacefully; and when at last he did wake up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the Tortoise in time.
Slow and steady wins the race.
7. The shepherd boy and the wolf story
There was once a boy whose father one day told him that he is old enough to look after the sheep. Every day he had to take the sheep over the grass fields and watch them as they grazed to become strong sheep with thick wool. The boy was unhappy though. He wanted to run and play, not watch the boring sheep. So, he decided to have some fun instead. He cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ until the entire village came running with stones to chase away the wolf before it could eat any of the sheep. Once they saw that there was no wolf, they left muttering under their breath about how the boy was wasting their time and giving them a good fright while at it. The next day, the boy again cried ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ and the villagers again rushed to chase the wolf away.
As the boy laughed at the fright he had caused, the villagers left, some angrier than the others. The third day, as the boy went up a small hill, he suddenly saw a wolf attacking his sheep. He cried as hard as he could, ‘Wolf! Wolf! WOLF!’, but the villagers thought he was trying to fool them again and did not come to rescue the sheep. The little boy lost three sheep that day, all because he cried wolf too many times.
8. The thirsty crow
One hot summer day a crow was feeling very thirsty. It flew all over the fields looking for water, but all was in vain. For a long time it flew here and there, but it could not find water to quench its thirst. It felt very weak and almost lost all hope to find water.
Suddenly, it saw a pitcher below a tree. It flew down to see it it had any water inside. Yes, it could see some water at the bottom of the pitcher!.
The crow tried to push his head into the jug. But the crow could not reach the water with its beak. The neck of the pitcher was too long and the water level was too low. Then it tried to tilt the pot for the water to flow out by the pot was too heavy and did not move an inch.
The tired crow thought hard for a while. It looked around and found some pebbles which gave it a good idea. It picked the pebbles one by one and dropped them in the pitcher. As more and more pebbles were dropped into the pot, the water level started rising. Soon the water level was high enough for the crow to drink from it. It drank the water, quenched its thirst and happily flew to its destination.
The story of the thirsty crow shows us that every problem is solvable if you work hard to solve it. So never let the problems and challenges in your life bring you down, work hard and use it to learn and grow.
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