137 items in this section. Displaying page 11 of 14
Nine of Ten
Once, in a dry desert, a man was urging ten camels forward to a water pool. After walking a few miles, he mounted one of the camels and counted the rest. He counted nine of them, then immediately dismounted and walked back in search of the lost one. Seeing no sign of any camel, he thought he had lost it. He discontinued the search and hurried back to the camels, grieved and dismayed. There, to his great joy, he found all ten of them....
Greed Never Pays
Bhim the elephant and Hanoo the langur lived in the Brindavan Jungle. They were the best of friends. Their friendship had, however, started as a need-based one. You may well wonder what would an elephant and a langur need from each other! Let me explain. Bhim who lived alone had grown quite old. He was extremely fond of fresh fruits. However, most of the time he was unable to get them. He was beaten by the more agile, younger and nimbler animals like Jeera the giraffe, Hiran the deer, Ghoda the horse and even Gadha the ass....
The Snake with the Golden Teeth
There was once a man called Paolo Maria Encarnacao Esplendido. He lived at Manaos in Brazil. He was a very rich man. He owned two gold mines and a silver mine. You might think one got more money from a gold mine than a silver mine because gold is worth more than silver. But, as a matter of face, more money goes down gold mines than comes out of them, because people are always digging mines for gold in places where there isn’t enough to make it worth their while....
My Magic Collar Stud
I suppose you think there aren’t any more fairies nowadays, or witches or wizards or goblins. Well, of course they don’t go about dressed up like the ones in picture books. You don’t see little fairies with butterfly wings perching on the chimneys at Hendon, or old ladies in pointed hats riding down Oxford Street on broomsticks and waiting for the green lights to go on. But they’re doing other things. The good magicians are still doing magic things like radio and chemistry....
The Chair
Once the mountain kingdom of Nepal was ruled by a liberal and kind-hearted king. He liked discussing problems of the state with important people of his kingdom. This practice made him popular and successful. In one such meeting, he noticed that no one except himself had a comfortable seat. Being kind-hearted, he was concerned. He decided to get suitable seats made for all participants in the meeting. He ordered the carpenters in country to present suitable models....
Joking with the Goddess
Gopal was in great pain. A big battle seemed to be raging in his stomach. Of course, there was nothing unusual about this. With his weakness for good food — sweets in particular — he often did overeat and this was the inevitable result. As long as the pain lasted, Gopal was full of remorse, and made wild promises to eat moderately, but all were forgotten the moment he was well. This time the pain was worse than anything he had ever experienced before....
The Boy with a Catapult
Our class at school has an odd assortment of boys. There was Harbans Lal who, when asked a difficult question, would take a sip out of his inkpot because he believed it sharpened his wits. If the teacher boxed his ears he would yell, “Help! Murder!” so loudly that teachers and boys from other classes would come running to see what had happened. This caused much embarrassment to the teacher. If the teacher tried to cane him, he would put his arms round him and implore, “Forgive me, Your Majesty!...
The Man who Saved the Moon
A kind-hearted man, looking down into a well, saw the reflection of the moon in the water. “Oh! My God! The moon has fallen into the well,” he muttered mournfully and hurried to fetch a hook tied to the end of a long rope. Quickly, he let the hook fall deep into the well, holding fast to the rope. The hook hit the water and, reaching the bottom of the well, caught fast to a stone....
Mad Mango
This is the story of a mango tree which did not want to spend its life rooted in one place. It wanted to travel, see the world and make new friends. Some excerpts from the first part of an exciting journey, when ‘Mad Mango’ learnt to walk. Many monsoons had come and gone, but Mango still stood in the same place, his hands reaching out for the sky, his feet going deeper and deeper into the earth....
The Stamp Album
Rajappa sensed a sudden drop in his popularity. For the past three days everyone had been crowding around Nagarajan. Rajappa tried to tell them that Nagarajan had become swollen headed, but no one paid any attention to him. For Nagarajan was generous in sharing the stamp album his uncle had sent from Singapore. The boys gathered around Nagarajan and devoured the album with their eyes till the school-bell rang for the morning class; they hovered round him at lunch-break and in the evening invaded his house....