STORIES TO MAKE YOU THINK

No less than 79 thoughtful stories, motivational tales,

and pieces of wisdom from around the world

Some of the most memorable lessons in life come from stories - whether
these be nursery rhymes or children's fables read to us by our parents,
parables from the Bible or Jewish wisdom tales, or motivational booklets
like "Who Moved My Cheese?" [click here]. I thought that it would be fun
and helpful to collect some of the stories that I've found meaningful and
share them with you. Each new story is added at the top of the page, so
visit as often as you like and feel free to e-mail me your story.
"Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a
story and it will live in my heart forever."
Native American proverb
"All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They
teach the world we create. They teach the morality we live by. They teach
it much more effectively than moral precepts and instructions".
Philip Pullman, author of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, speaking in
1996
"Everything we know comes in the form of a story, a narrative with a
beginning and end. Delia Smith’ s recipes and the handbook of latest
version of Windows are stories just as much as 'Coronation Street'. A
thing becomes meaningful only when we can embed it in a story."
Dorothy Rowe, "The Independent on Sunday", 31 March 1996
"Human beings are meaning-seeking creatures; we crave narratives that
have a beginning and an end - something that we rarely encounter in
everyday life. Stories give coherence to the confusion of our experience."
Author Karen Armstrong, "Guardian", 26 August 2006
"Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses."
Aleks Krotoski, "Observer", 7 August 2011
"Stories are compensatory. The world is unfair, unjust, unknowable, out
of control."
"Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" by Jeannette Winterson
(2011)
"Telling stories is our way of coping, a way of creating shape out of a
mess. It binds everyone together."
Canadian film director Sarah Polley, "Observer", 23 June 2013
“The key to the future of the world is finding the optimistic stories and
letting them be known.”
American singer-songwriter Pete Seeger (1919-2014)
Contents

 Contentment
 The donkey
 The trouble tree
 The folly of clinging
 The cracked pot
 The pencil's tale
 The battle of the beetles
 The seven wonders of the world
 A very special bank account
 Love stays
 The black dot
 An autobiography in five very short chapters
 Changing our vision
 The two pebbles
 We are never alone
 What love is all about
 The magical mustard seed
 How to change the world
 The two brothers
 The other side of the wall
 The two lumberjacks
 The last ride
 I wanted to change the world
 The law of the garbage truck
 The two hospital patients
 The tiger's whisker
 The hedgehogs
 The fence
 Your influence on the universe
 A turn of the screw
 Every bucket counts
 Two frogs in the milk
 A story for Passover
 Piece of mind
 Jumping the queue
 Knowledge and wisdom
 The starfish
 The American dream
 Alexander and Diogenes
 Testing for gossip
 Rafting
 The mouse trap
 A foot has no nose
 From Russia with love
 Virtually no competition
 The little wave
 Believe what you feel
 Everyone can play
 I must at least try
 King Arthur and the witch
 Helping hands
 The teacher and the taught
  Going the extra mile
 Who you are
 Different perspectives
 The eagle
 The three races
 The obstacle in our path
 Bad by name; bad by nature?
 Everyone is important
 The carrot, the egg, and the coffee bean
 The two wolves
 The great fire and the little water
 A sense of a goose
 The seeker of truth
 A meeting of minds
 Chopsticks
 The problem with dandelions
 In the same boat
 The frogs and the tower
 The international food shortage
 The Japanese master
 The secret of happiness
 The house with the golden windows
 Nothing is written
 The Chinese farmer
 King Solomon and the baby
 The wise teacher and the jar
 Listening - at Christmas and always

Contentment

It was spring but it was summer I wanted; the warm days and the great
outdoors.

It was summer but it was autumn I wanted; the colourful leaves and the
cool dry air.

It was autumn but it was winter I wanted; the beautiful snow and the joy
of the holiday season.

It was winter but it was spring I wanted; the warmth and the blossoming
of nature.

I was a child but it was adulthood I wanted; the freedom and the respect.

I was twenty but it was thirty I wanted; to be mature and sophisticated.

I was middle-aged but it was twenty I wanted; the youth and the free
spirit.
I was retired but it was middle-age that I wanted; the presence of mind
without limitations.

My life was over but I never got what I wanted.

Source: "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow

The donkey

An old man, a boy and a donkey were going to town. The boy rode on the
donkey and the old man walked. As they went along, they passed some
people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the
boy was riding. The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so
they changed positions.

Then, later, they passed some people who remarked, "What a shame, he
makes that little boy walk." So they then decided they'd both walk!

Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to
walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the
donkey. Now they passed some people who shamed them by saying how
awful to put such a load on a poor donkey.

The boy and man figured they were probably right, so they decided to
carry the donkey. As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the
animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story? If you try to please everyone, you might as well...
Kiss your “donkey" goodbye! And even this ending won’t please everyone.

The trouble tree

The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just

finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of
work, his electric saw quit and now his ancient pickup truck refused to
start.

While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving he invited

me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused
briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.
Upon opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His tan
face was wreathed in smiles and he hugged his two small children and
gave his wife a kiss.

Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree and my curiosity

got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
"Oh, that's my trouble tree", he replied. " I know I can't help having
troubles on the job, but one thing for sure, troubles don't belong in the
house with my wife and children. So I just hang them up on the tree
every night when I come home. Then in the morning I pick them up
again." "Funny thing is," he smiled, "when I come out in the morning to
pick them up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the
night before."

The folly of clinging

The little boy walked slowly into the room where his mother was sitting at
her desk writing. She glanced down at him and saw that he was carrying
a very precious vase that her grandmother had given her. Almost
absentmindedly she said to him, “Robert, go put the vase down before
you drop it and break it.”

“I can’t,” he replied, “I can’t get my hand out.”

“Of course you can,” she said, “you got it down there.”

He said, “I know, mom, but it won’t come out.” The neck of the vase was
very narrow and his hand had fit it neatly inside and it was now up to his
wrist. He continued to insist that he could not get it out. Growing a little
concerned, his mother called out to his dad.

Dad calmly took control and began gently pulling the arm trying to extract
the hand from the vase. He tried loosening it up with soapy water. Still
nothing. He then got some vegetable oil from the kitchen and poured it
around the wrist and let it seep into the vase. He wiggled it some. It still
did not budge.

“I give up,” the dad said in desperation. “I’d give a dollar right now to
know how to get it out.”

“Really?” little Robert exclaimed. Then they heard a clinking sound and
his hand slid right out of the vase. They turned the vase upside down and
a penny plopped out. “What’s this?” they said in unison.

“Oh, that’s the penny I put inside. I wanted to get it out so I was
clutching it in my hand. But when I heard Dad say he would give a dollar
to have the vase free, I let go.”

How often do we cling to things when they are nothing in comparison to

what could be ours?