151 Folk Tales

A farmer discovered a pot of gold in his field. He buried it in his garden. He warned his wife not to tell anyone. But the wife had a bad habit of blurting everything out. So, the farmer had an idea. At night, he took some bread and put it on a tree. The wife […]

A grasshopper was singing and dancing around in a field one day. He saw an ant. She was pulling an ear of corn with great effort. The grasshopper asked, “Why are you working so hard? Come and chat with me.” “I am storing food for the winter,” replied the ant. The grasshopper said, “Why bother

Long ago, a farmer realized that one of the walls he built kept getting knocked down by someone or something. He decided to catch the culprit. Soon, he saw three fairies. When they saw the farmer, the two escaped but the third could not. The farmer fell in love with her. He hid her magical

Long ago, a sweet old woman had beautiful tulips. One night, she heard sweet singing and babies laughing. The old woman rose and went near her tulips. She saw a little fairy mother who was crooning and rocking the flowers like a cradle, while in each tulip cup there lay a little baby laughing. From

Once, a king expressed his opinion that scholars were the cleverest men in his kingdom. But, the court’s jester disagreed. He said that businessmen were cleverer. He offered to prove his point. He called a scholar to the palace and told him that the king wanted his moustache. He asked him to tell his price.

Once, a king was very proud of his good looks. God wanted to see the handsome king himself. So, one day, God entered the king’s court. He said to the king, “I have come to see whether you really are as good-looking as you think yourself to be. I think you are better looking at

An idol-maker made a very beautiful idol. He put the idol on his donkey to deliver it to his customer. It was a very exquisite idol and the passers-by were admiring it. They bowed in front of the idol and prayed. The foolish donkey thought that the people were bowing to him. He became proud

Once, a man carved a beautiful gebeta board (a board game) for his son. The son carried his board under his arm wherever he went. Once, he came upon some men who wanted wood. The son showed them his board but they used it for burning. The son started crying, so they gave him a

There was a girl called Silken Tassel. A wizard wanted to marry her. When she refused to marry him, he told the villagers that she was a witch. He told them to put her in a barrel and throw the barrel in the river. Then the cruel wizard told his servants to get the barrel

A squirrel served a lion very faithfully. Pleased with his service, the lion told him, “When you retire, I will give you a cart full of almonds.” The squirrel was very happy. But there were times when the squirrel used to yearn playing with his friends and leading a carefree life. He envied them but

Once, a thief used to steal things from people’s houses. One day, he decided to rob pilgrims. He used to sit near a temple and rob the devotees. One day, the thief saw a rich devotee. He became friends with the devotee. One day, he told the devotee that he was going to rob him.

A village headman had a daughter-in-law. One day, he asked his daughter-in-law, “How much do you think I spent on your wedding?” The daughter-in-law replied, “Well, you spent equal to the cost of one bag of rice.” The headman was annoyed at this answer but did not say anything. One day, they were going somewhere,

A village was terrified of a tiger. The tiger used to come to the village every day and pick a prey. On the outskirts of the village there stood a tree. On this tree, a young boy sat guarding. Whenever he used to see the tiger coming, he used to beat the drums to warn

A weaver used to weave blankets and earn his living. One day, as he was weaving a blanket, a man stood and watched him. Suddenly, when the weaver was not looking, the man cut a few strands of his hair and mixed them with the wool the weaver was weaving. After a few days, the

Once, a farmer was selling pears. Soon, an old monk begged him for a pear but the farmer did not give him any. By then a large crowd had gathered there. Finally, a man bought a pear and handed it to the monk. The monk thanked the man and said, “I invite all of you