The Donkey Who Would Sing

A donkey once lived in a forest.  He had no friends.  One day a fox seeing how lonely the donkey was, went up to him and offered to be his friend.  "Why are you all by yourself?  Why don't we become friends, O Donkey?"

From that day onwards,  the donkey and the fox became good friends.  They met with each other often and spent a lot of time together.  The donkey said, "O Fox,  I am so happy to have a friend like you!"

One moonlit evening the fox and the donkey met together as they usually did.  It was a pleasant evening and they sat together enjoying each other's company.  "What a beautiful evening it is, O Fox!" the donkey said.

After a while they both felt hungry and decided to go out looking for food.  As they wandered, they came to the edge of the jungle.  And there before them was a field full of watermelons.  Both the animals decided to enter the watermelon field silently and have a good meal.

When they had eaten their fill, the fox turned to leave.  But the donkey stopped him.  "O Fox, after this feast I feel like singing."  The fox tried to caution the donkey about making a noise, but the donkey would not listen and was annoyed with the fox.  The fox walked away silently.

As the fox hid himself in the nearby bushes, the donkey threw up his head and sang his song......."Hee...  Haw!  Hee...  Haw!"

Hearing the donkey bray, the farmer's servant rushed out with a stick, beat the donkey severely and chased him away.  The donkey thought, "Ouch!  I should have taken the fox's wise advice."

Moral:

• Advice when most needed is least heeded.

The Four Learned Brahmins

Once four young Brahmins were disciples of a learned guru.  They spent years learning all the scriptures.  And then one day, they were ready to leave their teacher's hermitage.  The teacher advised the Brahmins, "Knowledge is power.  Use it wisely.  Never use your powers in vain."

The four young Brahmins were excited that they had completed their schooling.  They were eager to test their skills.  As they were going through the forest they saw the bones of a lion lying on the ground.  "Look at that!  They look like the bones of a lion.  Let's try our skills on these bones." said one of the Brahmins.

The four young Brahmins agreed to test their knowledge.  The first Brahmin decided to put the bones together and recreate the skeleton of the lion.  "There you see!  This is a perfect skeleton of the lion!" said the first Brahmin.

The second young Brahmin eager to test his knowledge and skills decided to give the skeleton flesh and skin.  As the others watched he created a perfect life-like lion.  "Doesn't it look perfect?  A pity it is not alive!" said the second Brahmin.

The third young Brahmin was the cleverest of them all.  He decided to try and breathe life into the body of the lion.  He said, "Our guru taught me the special skill of giving life."

But the fourth Brahmin who was not as clever as the others felt that they were using their powers in vain.  When the others would not listen to him, he climbed onto the branch of a tree before his friend gave life to the lion.  He told the others "I think I'll stay on this tree while you test your skills."

The fourth Brahmin watched from the tree as his friend uttered spells and sprinkled water on the lion.  As soon as the lion came to life, it sprang up and killed the three young Brahmins.

The fourth Brahmin was horrified and filled with sorrow.  His three friends would have done so well in life if only they had learnt to act wisely and not just cleverly. He sighed "How I wish they had remembered the guru's final advice!"

Moral:

• Wisdom is knowing what to do with what you know.

The Barber and the Saints

Once a pious and generous man fell into bad times.  He lost all his wealth.  One night he had a strange dream.  He dreamed that a saint who came to his house turned into a heap of gold when touched on the head with a stick.  He wondered if his dream would come true.....

The pious man believed in dreams.  So the next morning he waited anxiously to see if the dream would come true.  Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps.

At first the pious man was disappointed.  It was only the barber.  But as he sat down for his shave, a saint came to his house.  The pious man could not believe his eyes.  He thought "Could this really be my dream coming true?"

It really was the dream coming true.  The saint bowed before him.  When the pious man touched his head with a stick, the saint turned into a heap of gold.

The barber who saw all this was filled with surprise.  The ignorant barber had a plan.  He invited some saints from a hermitage for a feast.  Hoping that they would turn into gold. he began hitting the poor saints over the head with a stout stick.

One of the saints managed to escape from the greedy barber and informed the King's guards.  They rushed to the barber's house and took him away to the King who punished him for his greed.

Moral:

• Think before you act.

The Crow and the Jackal

Once a crow saw an old Brahmin eating some bread.  The crow was very hungry.  When the Brahmin was looking away, the crow quickly snatched a piece of bread and flew away with it.  The hungry crow flew to a tree in the woods nearby and sat down to eat the tasty piece of bread.

Just then, a Jackal came up from behind.  The Jackal saw the crow sitting on the tree with the piece of bread in her beak.  The Jackal was a very cunning and greedy animal.  He wanted to have the bread.  The cunning Jackal wanted to take away the bread from the crow so he could eat it.  He thought fast and came up with a plan.  He went over to the crow and started praising her.  "O beautiful bird, Are you new to the woods?  I have never seen another bird as pretty as you!"

At first the crow ignored the Jackal. She knew that the Jackal was a cunning animal.  But the Jackal did not give up.  He praised her even more.  "Not only are your feathers brightly colored, you also have that quiet beauty!"

After a while, the crow began to feel flattered.  She had never heard so many nice things being said about her.  She even started believing the Jackal's words.  The Jackal said, "I am sure a bird as pretty as you can sing well too!"

The crow listened to the Jackal's words of flattery and started to believe that she could sing.  She decided to sing.  Just as she opened her beak to sing, the bread fell from her beak only to be snapped by the cunning Jackal.

It was only then that the poor crow realized that she had been tricked by the cunning Jackal.  As she looked helplessly, the Jackal mocked her and went away with the piece of bread.  The crow thought "Alas! If only I had not been carried away by flattery...."

Moral:  

• Flattery is the weapon of the cunning.
• Do not be carried away by flattery.

The Snake and the Foolish Frogs

There was a snake who had become weak because of old age.  He could no longer hunt frogs and rats for his food as he used to.  The snake thought "If I don't find a way to find food soon, I'll surely starve to death."

Just then he saw a group of young frogs playing near a pond.  They were lead by the prince of the frogs.  The old snake suddenly had an idea.  When the curious frogs came closer, the snake spoke to them gently.  "Do not fear.  I stopped hunting frogs.  I'm here to serve you!"

The prince of frogs took the snake to his parents.  The king and queen frogs decided to make the old snake their royal mount.  The cunning snake allowed the king, queen and the prince of frogs to ride on his back.

But soon the royal frogs realized that the snake moved too slowly.  They called the snake and asked him why he could not move swiftly like the other snakes.  "I have not eaten for many days.  I made a promise not to hunt frogs anymore", said the snake.

The next day the king frog summoned all the frogs together and made a proclamation that each day two frogs should go to the snake as his food.  "Hiss! At last my plan succeeds", thought the snake.

In just a few days the snake had eaten many of the frogs in the pond.  He was now strong and swift again.  At last one day only the three royal frogs remained.  He turned on them with a wicked hiss and said, "Hiss!  Foolish Frogs!  I have eaten up all your subjects.  Now you are my prey." And the snake hunted the three royal frogs too.

Moral:

• Doing good to the bad still yields bad.
• Stay away from the bad.

The Owl and the Swan

A swan and and owl once lived in a jungle.  They were good friends.  The swan was the king of swans, but the owl was just a common bird.  The owl always wished "I wish I were a king too!"

One day the owl woke up to see an army camp beneath his tree.  Suddenly he had an idea!  He quickly went to the swan and invited him to his tree.  He showed the army to the swan and said, " O Swan! this is my kingdom and the army below is my army!"

Just then the captain gave the orders to the army to move.  Hearing this the owl decided to show the swan his authority.  He flew around the captain hooting loudly.

Now the captain was a person who believed in omens.  He quickly decided that it was not a good day to travel.  He ordered his troops to camp for another day and decided to leave the next day.

The next morning the owl invited the swan again to show off his kingdom.  As the soldiers were getting ready to go, the owl flew around the captain's head hooting loudly.

But this time the captain was angry with the owl.  He decided that he would set aside his fear of ill omens and continue with the journey.  He called an archer and ordered "Shoot down that pesky owl!"

The owl and the swan were perched on the same branch when the archer shot his arrow.  The owl seeing the arrow, moved away hastily.  But the swan was too slow to move.  The arrow pierced the swan and the swan dropped dead.

The owl was filled with sadness and remorse at the loss of the noble swan.  If he had not been so untruthful and pretentious, he would not have been the cause of death of a good and honest friend.  The owl weeped in sorrow and said to himself, "Ah! My poor friend!  You had to die because of my lies and pride."

Moral:

• Disaster follows pride.

The Jackal and the War Drum

Once upon a time there lived a Jackal.  He was the leader of the pack.  But none of the other jackals liked him.  So one day they decided to chase him away.  "Go away!  We do not want you with us anymore."

The poor jackal wandered through the jungle.  He felt very lonely.  He was also hungry for he had not eaten for many days.  "I feel so weak.  I hope to find some food soon" thought the hungry jackal.

As he wandered through the jungle, he suddenly heard a terrible noise.  It was coming from behind a tree.  The jackal ran for his life.  "Eeek!  There must be a terrible creature there!"

But after running some distance, the jackal realized that the noise had stopped.  Then it came again and then it stopped.  "Strange!  The noise comes every time there's a breeze.  Let me go back and see." decided the jackal.

The jackal was surprised and relieved to see that it was only an old war drum under the tree.  Just then a branch of the tree moved in the breeze and brushed against the war drum.  The terrible noise came again.  "So this is why there was such a terrible noise!" exclaimed the jackal.

The jackal was also delighted to find a lot of food lying there.  Some soldiers who had camped there had left both the war drum and the food behind.  The jackal enjoyed the meal while saying to himself,  "Mmm!  Had I not come back, I would not have found this food."

Moral:

• Fortune favors the brave.