151 Folk Tales

Once, in the forest, there lived many birds together. Among them was a wise old bird. All the birds respected him. Now, it so happened that the weather became very hot once. All the birds got affected due to the heat. So, the wise birds said, “Since it has become so hot here, we will […]

Once, there was a cunning cat. One day, as he came out of his hole, he a saw a cat sitting near by. The rat quickly went back to his hole. There were many other rats. The cunning rat had an idea. He asked another rat, “Friend, would you like to come along with me

Once, a student used to absent himself from classes very often. One day, the principal called him. It was lunchtime when the student came. The principal asked, “Is this the time to come?” The student replied, “I got late today because I found a lump of gold in our field.” The principal was surprised and

Once, a couple decided to move to the city for better prospects. They were very friendly with their neighbours. So, before leaving, the couple left their ornaments with them. They came back after three years. When they went to their neighbours to ask for their ornaments, they were surprised to hear that some mice had

Once upon a time, a king’s royal stable caught fire. Many horses were wounded. The royal physician was called into look into the matter. While the physician was coming towards the palace, he saw a crow sitting on a tree. The crow dropped his droppings on the physician. The physician was very angry and decided

Once, a man sold his well to a farmer. When the farmer was going to draw water from that well, the man said, “I have sold you just the well, not the water. You will have to pay me extra for the water.” The farmer felt cheated and took the matter to the king. The

Once, a king sent a message to the neighbouring king. The message read: “Send me a blue diamond as large as a pigeon’s egg or else….” The king wrote back: “We don’t have such a diamond and if we had….” The first king got angry on reading this and declared war on his neighbour. A

Once, a dying man told his son, “When I die, please sow some pumpkin seeds on my grave.” So, when the man died, his son sowed some pumpkin seeds on his grave. Slowly the pumpkins grew. When they were fully ripe, the son sold them. The son became very rich after that. Soon, his pumpkins

Once, a bed bug and his family lived on a king’s bed and sucked his blood as and when they pleased. They were living away happily. Once, a mosquito entered the king’s chamber. He was very happy to see the bed and thought, ‘It will be great to suck the blood from the king’s body.’

Once, there was a land of coconuts. A wise and good king ruled it. But the king was sad as he did not have an heir. One day, there was a good yield of coconuts. Lots of coconut oil was made from the coconuts. One day, the king was standing near a tank of coconut

Once, a teacher told his disciples never to do anything without his permission. One day, while they were travelling in a cart, the teacher’s turban fell on the road. But as their teacher had told them never to do anything without his permission, none of the disciples made a move to get down and pick

Once, there was a poor orphan boy. He slept on the pavement and sometimes had nothing to eat at all. One day, he decided to go to the city to make a fortune. But the boy’s luck did not change there. He was still poor. One day, a generous man took pity on him and

Once, a king had four wives. But he loved his youngest wife the most. All the other queens were jealous of the youngest queen. They conspired against the youngest queen and had her banished from the kingdom. But the king was heartbroken. One day, he dreamt of a golden tree which said to him, “Come

Once, king lion called his subjects to his court. But his court had a bad stench. A bear entered the court and immediately put a piece of cloth on his nose. The king got angry and threw him out. Then he asked the animals, “Is my court smelling badly?” A monkey replied in a flattering

Once, a man was very proud of his long beard. One night, the man was reading a book by candlelight. Suddenly, he came across a sentence that read: A man with a long beard is a fool. The man decided to get rid of his long beard. So, he held the tip of his beard