Once, a royal priest’s son and the prince were good friends. But when the prince grew up, he became wicked. He planned to kill his father and become the king. He shared his plan with his friend. The priest’s son tried to persuade the prince from giving up his plan but the prince did not […]
A barber used to serve the royal families. One day, the barber came to the palace with his son. His son saw a beautiful girl in the garden and fell in love with her immediately. When they went home, the son told his father about the girl. The son said, “Father, I want to marry
Once, a cunning king possessed a wild horse. One day, a horse seller came to sell his horses. The cunning king did not want to pay a high price for the horses, so he asked his courtier to set the wild horse free among them. The wild horse bit the horses and wounded them. After
Long ago, there lived a monk. He used to give sermons to people. One day, pleased with his selfless acts, the queen gave him many gifts. After this, the king also gifted him many gifts. The monk gave away all the gifts to a young monk. This young monk, in turn, gave away the gifts
An ascetic, who was the guest of a king, thought of returning to his hermitage. But, he needed an umbrella and a pair of single-soled shoes. He decided to ask the king for those but thought, ‘What if the king refuses to give me those? I will not be able to bear that and our
Once, a fox was searching around for food. He came across a hen and wanted to eat her. So, he hid himself in a bush and as he was going to pounce on her, he heard a strange tapping sound. Now, unknown to him, there was a drum in the tree. When the wind blew,
A goat and an ass were bitter enemies. They always wanted to fight each other. The goat thought, ‘My horns are stronger than the ass’s soft head. I can win a fight easily.’ So one day, the goat and the ass faced each other. The goat at once rushed forward, with his horns pointing straight
Once, there was a Naga king. He was married to a beautiful Naga princess. They lived happily together. But after some time, the Naga king was tired of his luxurious life and left his wife to meditate in the forest. While he was deep in meditation, a snake charmer caught him. He took him to
Once, an old man and his wife lived in Okayama. They had no children. Every day, the old man went to cut wood and his wife went to the river to wash clothes. One day, while she was washing the clothes, a big peach came floating down the river. It looked yummy! So, she decided
A king was sitting near his window when he saw a very shabbily dressed woman on the road. She had a small bag of eatables in her hand. After some time, the king saw an old beggar near the woman who seemed to be thirsty and looking for water. Suddenly, the beggar fainted. The shabbily
A group of iguanas lived in a forest. The iguana king’s son was very friendly with a chameleon. The king did not like this and warned his son, “Chameleons are lowly creatures and cannot be trusted. They will bring trouble. Keep away from them.” But the son ignored his warning. The king warned him repeatedly
Once upon a time, in a certain village of Japan, there was a very mean old woman. Whenever she saw anyone having something, she would want that. She would say, “If you don’t want this, would you let me have it?” Saying this, she would carry it off. One day, it so happened that a
An army of ants lived in an anthill near a stream. Once it rained so heavily that the stream crossed its danger mark. The ants became worried that their anthill would get destroyed. So, they decided to leave the anthill. They took their food and started marching out of the anthill. But they came to
Once, a great spirit resided in the form of a lizard. An ascetic built his hut where the lizard lived. The lizard, seeing the ascetic, went and paid its respects to the ascetic every day. But this ascetic was a rogue. He loved eating an animal’s flesh. His weakness was a lizard’s flesh. When he
A royal horse was taken to a pool to be washed. Now, just before the arrival of the royal horse, a filthy horse had been washed there. The royal horse sniffed the air and knew that the pool was dirty and stinking. He turned up his nose in disgust and refused to get washed. The