Spoken English: Short Stories
BIRBAL THE WISE
One day, a rich merchant came to Birbal. He said to Birbal, “I have seven servants in my
house. One of them has stolen my bag of precious pearls. Please find out the thief.”
So Birbal went to the rich man’s house. He called all the seven servants in a room. He gave a
stick to each one of them. Then he said, “These are magic sticks. Just now all these sticks are
equal in length. Keep them with you and return tomorrow. If there is a thief in the house,
his stick will grow an inch longer by tomorrow.”
The servant who had stolen the bag of pearls was scared. He thought, “If I cut a piece of one
inch from my stick, I won’t be caught.” So he cut the stick and made it shorter by one inch.
The next day Birbal collected the sticks from the servants. He found that one servant’s stick
was short by an inch. Birbal pointed his finger at him and said, “Here is the thief.” The
servant confessed to his crime. He returned the bag of pearls. He was sent to jail.
THE WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING
One day a wolf found a sheepskin. He covered himself with the sheepskin and got into a
flock of sheep grazing in a field. He thought, “The shepherd will shut the sheep in the pen
after sunset. At night I will run away with a fat sheep and eat it.
All went well till the shepherd shut the sheep in the pen and left. The wolf waited patiently
for the night to advance and grow darker. But then an unexpected thing happened. One of
the servants of the shepherd entered the pen. His master had sent him to bring a fat sheep
for supper. As luck would have it, the servant picked up the wolf dressed in the sheepskin.
That night the shepherd and his guests had the wolf for supper.
Moral: An evil design has an evil end.
HARE AND THE TORTOISE
Once a hare was roaming near a lake in a forest. Suddenly he saw a tortoise and mocked at
him saying - "Hurry up, you slow coach! Don't you find life very dull taking so long to cover
a few yards? I could have run to the other side of the lake by now."
The tortoise felt teased and dared the hare to a race. The race was to be through the wood
to a fixed goal.
The hare agreed laughingly. In a few minutes he was away and out of sight.
"What a funny race it is!" he said to himself , "I am already half -way through. But it is too-
too cold; why not have a nap in the warm sunshine?"
The tortoise walked steadily on and on. In a short time, he passed by the sleeping hare.
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Spoken English: Short Stories
The hare slept far longer then he had intended.When he woke up at last, he looked
around in surprise and said to himself," Not even a sigh of the poor tortoise anywhere so
far; I had better trot along and finish the race."
The hare ran to the goal. He was amazed to see all the animals cheering the tortoise who
had arrived just a minute earlier. how ashamed he felt indeed!
Moral: Slow and steady wins the race
NOBODY BELIEVES A LIAR
Once a mischievous boy lived in a village that stood in the feet of a hill. One day he thought
of having fun at the cost of his fellow-villagers.
Standing on a high rock, he shouted at the top of his voice, "Lion! Lion! Come, save me."
The villagers heard the shout and ran to help him. But when they reached there, they could
see no lion and the boy was perfectly all right. The boy laughed at the villagers saying, "No
Lion ; I did it only for fun."
The villagers got highly annoyed and came back with an air of anger.
Few days later the boy repeated the whole act. Again the villagers went to his rescue but
were duped again. Now they decided not to be fooled by him anymore.
Unfortunately, one day, the lion really came there. Now the boy shouted, "Lion! Lion! as
loud as he could". But nobody came to help him out.
The lion attacked the boy. The boy struggled hard to save himself but within few minutes,
the beast killed him.
So, once a liar, always a liar.
