Once, a farmer purchased two healthy oxen from a fair and ploughed his field. At noon, he left the oxen loose for grazing and slept for a while. A thief saw the pair of oxen and decided to steal them. As he was taking them, the farmer got up. He caught the thief and shouted, […]
One day, a teacher was going to another village. Suddenly, some dacoits blocked his way. The chief dacoit asked, “Who are you?” “I’m a school teacher,” replied the man. The chief taunted, “Do you test your students regularly? I think it is time somebody tested you too!” The others agreed. So, the chief picked up
Once, Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops, led by four of his finest commanders, won a great battle. He said, “Ask for anything and I’ll grant it.” The first asked for a house in Paris. The second wanted a hotel. The third wanted a brewery. Finally, the fourth asked for a fortnight’s leave. The other three commanders were
Once, there was a very clever deer. One day, he saw some apple trees with juicy apples across the river. He wanted to taste them. But that was not easy as the river was full of crocodiles. Yet, the deer did not give up. He had an idea. He called out to a crocodile and
Once upon a time, there was a man named Jim. One day, he went to the library. There, he chose a book entitled ‘How to Ride a Horse’. He started reading the book. It was so interesting that he finished reading it at one go. One day, he went to see a friend. Now, this
Tenali Raman was a very wise man. Once, a sage visited his village. The villagers were excited as the sage was known to have performed many miracles. They gathered at the temple with specially prepared delicacies as offerings to the sage. Tenali Raman too went to see the sage. He sat near the sage. The
Once, there was a rich old lady. She used to live in a big mansion. She was very fond of birds. So, one day, she went to the market and bought a lovely parrot. She taught the parrot to tell her the time. So, every day, the parrot used to tell her the time. Every
A long time ago, there was a school. In that school, there was a certain teacher who had a habit of taking a short nap every afternoon. One day, a student got up and asked him, “Sir, why do you sleep every day?” The teacher replied, “I go to dreamland to meet the ancient sages.”
Once upon a time, there was a merchant. One day, he was going on a matter of business. His servant was also accompanying him. As they were walking along a road, they saw a labourer carrying a heavy sack coming from the opposite side. As the labourer passed by, the merchant was hit by the
Once, a king of a certain kingdom woke up dreaming about losing all his teeth. He summoned a well-known fortune teller to interpret his dream. “Your Majesty, losing all the teeth means the death of the whole family!” the fortune teller interpreted. Hearing this, the king got very angry. He ordered, “Punish this fortune teller
Once upon a time, there was a peaceful little village. In that village lived a shepherd. He had some lovely sheep. Every day, the shepherd used to take his sheep for grazing. He had bought bells for each of them. He tied a bell to each of the sheep so that he might know where
Once, a soldier went to a hospital. The nurse took him to see an old man and said, “Your son is here.” Heavily medicated, the old man dimly saw the young soldier. He reached out his hand. The soldier wrapped his fingers around the old man’s. All night, the soldier sat there holding the old
Once, a businessman had a lazy son. One day, the businessman said, “I want you to earn something.” The son complained to his mother. She gave him a gold coin. The son showed his father the gold coin. He asked him to throw it into a well. The son did so. The wise father guessed
Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a compassionate man. He had a servant whom he treated like the member of his family. One day, when Vidyasagar was descending the stairs of his house, he saw his servant sleeping on the staircase with a letter in his hand and tears on his face. Vidyasagar took the letter and
Once, a rich landowner while dying told his three sons to dig under his bed. Some days later, the sons dug there and unearthed three pots. The topmost pot contained mud, the middle pot contained the dried dung of a cow and the lowest pot contained straw. Below this pot was a silver coin. “What