Many years ago, elephants had small trunks. One day, an elephant saw a crocodile lying down on a river-bank. The elephant said, “Hey, you crawling creature! I wonder why you are not small like the other creatures! You are too long for your own comfort.” The crocodile lost his temper and said, “Wait, I will […]
Once, the jealous Rajguru told the king that Tenali had a special stone called ‘Paras’ that can turn iron into gold. When inquired, Tenali understood that someone was trying to show him down. He said ‘yes’ he had a stone. On being asked to prove it he said he would prove it next morning. Next
Chapter-3 “I don’t know anything, only he hasn’t got any folks, and he’s poor, and he was good to me, so I’d like to be good to him if I could.” “Excellent reasons, everyone; but really, Nat, the house is full, and I don’t know where I could put him,” said Mrs. Bhaer, more and
Once, Rajguru and Bhanu were having an argument when Bhanu said it was easy to find faults with others but very difficult to improve on them which the former declined. Tenali heard the entire argument. That day, a painter came to the court and gifted the king with a beautiful picture of a lady in
Once, a priest came to the court and said he wanted to free the kingdom of all evil spirits and, hence, would perform a penance for 1,000 coins. For this he would stand in the freezing cold water every day and perform a yajna too. The king agreed and this went on for a few
One day, the king filled the bags of gold coins and gems to distribute among the poor and the Brahmins, and asked Tenali to follow him. He said he should see if anything fell out. On the way the bag tore open and the gems started falling but Tenali didn’t complain, since he was asked
Once a foreigner came to the court and asked everyone what the most valuable thing in the kingdom was. While some said the palace, jewels and the wealth, Tenali said it was freedom. He was asked to prove this. Until then the foreigner was a royal guest. All arrangements were made to make his stay
A gannet and a sea duck were arguing over whether mermaids exist or not. They decided to search the bottom of the sea. They dived deep down under the sea. First, they saw colourful fish, then medium-sized fish and then large fish. Soon, they dived so deep in the sea that they could not see
Once, the king was so happy with Tenali that he gave him an entire town as a gift but forgot about it soon after. So Tenali kept looking for instances to remind the king of his promise. One day, an Arab came to the kingdom with a camel. Since no one had seen a camel
Once, a very old man came to the king’s court for help. He told the king that his son and daughter-in-law had thrown him out of the house and didn’t respect him. Hearing this Tenali promised the king he would solve the problem. After two days the old man came to the court happy saying
On one full-moon night, Tenali requested the king to go for a horse ride with the prime minister. The king agreed. Inside the forest, they saw some workers were smuggling wood out of the forest. On inquiring they got to know it was for Dhirumal Seth who smuggled it to the other kingdom earning twice
Once, a watchdog was lying in the sun in front of a farmyard gate. A wolf, who was passing by stealthily, pounced upon the watchdog. The scared dog begged for his life and said, “Sir! Please leave me as I have just recovered from a long illness. I am very thin and weak. Let me
Chapter-2 When Nat went into school on Monday morning, he quaked inwardly, for now he thought he should have to display his ignorance before them all. But Mr. Bhaer gave him a seat in the deep window, where he could turn his back on the others, and Franz heard him say his lessons there, so
Once, the king gifted Tenali five elephants. When he took them home, the wife was angry because they were poor and had a large family to feed. Tenali knew she was right but could do nothing since they were a royal gift. So he took them to Kali temple and got her seal on their
Once, a bird-catcher brought a beautiful rare bird for the king. Impressed the king decided to reward him but Tenali Raman stopped him. On being asked for an explanation Raman said that it was no rare bird and the bird-catcher was befooling the king. To prove, he poured water on the bird. All the colours