The Golden Touch

The Greek king Midas did a good deed for a Satyr. This prompted
Dionysus, the god of wine, to grant him a wish. Midas asked for everything
he touched to turn to gold. Dionysus’ warned him not to do so, but Midas
could not be swayed. Midas excitedly started touching everything and
turning them into gold. Soon, he became hungry. But he couldn’t eat
anything because even his food turned to gold. His beloved daughter saw
him in distress and ran to hug him. However, she, too, turned to gold. He
realised then the golden touch was not a blessing.

Moral: Greed leads one to downfall.

The Proud Rose

In the desert existed a rose and a cactus. The beautiful rose would take
every opportunity to insult the cactus. The other plants tried to defend the
cactus, but the rose was too obsessed with its own looks. There was no
water during a particularly hot summer. The rose started to wither away.
But the cactus had become a source of water for sparrows. The rose asked
the cactus for water, and the nice cactus readily agreed.

Moral: Never judge someone according to how they look.

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

Molly, the milkmaid’s job was to milk the cows and sell the milk at the
market. She started thinking about the things she would spend her money
on. While walking to the market, she spotted a chicken and thought that
she could earn more money by buying a chicken and selling its eggs. She
started to think how jealous she could make the other milkmaid with all
the things she could buy from the milk and egg money. She started to skip
in excitement, and soon the milk spilled over. She went home with empty
pails and no money. Her mother then reminds her that she shouldn’t count
her chicken until they hatch.

Moral: Do not depend on something until you are sure it will happen.

A Wise Old Owl

An old owl would observe incidents happening around his oak tree every
day. The more things he saw, the less he would speak. He heard people
talking and sharing stories as well. The old owl had seen so much and
heard all kinds of stories. All of these experiences helped the owl to
become wiser day by day.

Moral: Talk less and be more observant.

The Golden Egg

A farmer had a goose that laid one golden egg a day. He would sell the
golden eggs, and they enjoyed a comfortable life. However, the farmer
became greedy and wanted more than one egg a day. His wife foolishly
agreed to his idea. The next day the farmer cut open the goose after it
laid the golden egg. He could only find blood and guts. He realised his
mistake. He now had no source of income, and the couple became poorer
every day.

Moral: Think before you act.

The Farmer and the Well

A farmer bought a well from his neighbour to water his farm. The
neighbour sold him the well but did not allow him to draw water from it.
The farmer went to the emperor for justice. His courtier questioned the
neighbour, who said that he had sold the well but not the water within it.
The neighbour was told to either pay rent for the water to remove it all
immediately. Realising that his trick didn’t work, he apologised and went
home.

Moral: Cheating will get you nowhere.

Elephant and Friends

A lonely elephant was looking for friends in the forest. The monkey
declined to be the elephant’s friend because the elephant could not swing
in the trees. The rabbit turned the elephant because it was too big to fit in
the burrow. The frog refused to be the elephant’s friend because it could
not jump. Every other animal said no to the poor elephant. The next day,
all the animals in the forest were running away in fear. The elephant
stopped a bear who said that the tiger was attacking them all. The
elephant nicely asked the tiger to stop, but the tiger told the elephant to
stay out of the way. The elephant proceeded to kick the tiger and scare it
away. The other animals then realised that the elephant was the perfect
size to be their friend.

Moral: Friends can be any shape or size.

When Adversity Knocks

There once was a girl who was frustrated with life and asked her father for
advice. He asked her to bring an egg, two tea leaves, and a potato. He
then started boiling water in three separate vessels. He put the egg,
potato, and tea leaves in one vessel each. After a few minutes, he asked
her to peel the egg and potato and strain the leaves. He explained to his
daughter that:

 The soft egg was now hard.

 The hard potato was now soft.

 The tea had changed the water itself.

When adversity is at our door, we can respond to it in different ways.

Moral: We decide how to respond to difficult situations.

The Needle Tree

There were two brothers; the older one was always mean to the younger
one. The older one would chop firewood in the forest and sell it in the
market. One day, he stumbled across a magical tree. The tree begged him
not to cut him down and promised him golden apples in exchange. The
older brother felt disappointed with the number of apples he received. He
decided to cut down the tree anyway, but the tree showered him with
hundreds of needles. The boy was left lying on the forest ground in pain.
His younger brother finally found him and carefully took out every needle.
The older brother finally apologised for treating his brother badly. The
magical tree saw this exchange. It decided to give them more golden
apples.

Moral: Kindness will always be rewarded.

A Glass of Milk

There was a poor boy who would sell newspapers to pay for school. One
day, he was ravenous and decided to ask for food at the next house he
visited. Several people denied him food. However, a girl at one house
offered him a glass of milk. She refused to take payment for it. After many
years, this girl fell sick. No doctor wanted to help her. She decided to go to
the best doctor in the town. The doctor spent months treating her, though
she could not afford the service. When she received the hospital bill, it
read ‘Paid in full, with a glass of milk.’

Moral: Good deeds are always rewarded.

The Ants and the Grasshopper

A family of ants was drying out the grain they had stored during the
summer. A hungry grasshopper comes to them and asks for some food.
They asked him why he had not saved any food for the winter. The
grasshopper said he was too busy making music during the summer that
he didn’t save any food. The ants had no sympathy for the grasshopper
and went back to work. Can you guess the ant and grasshopper story
moral?

Moral: There’s a time to work and a time to play.

The Bundle of Sticks

An old man had three sons. They were hard workers but always fought. He
could never unite them. He then fell ill and asked his sons to unite. They
paid him no heed. He decided to teach them a lesson to set aside their
differences. He gave them a bundle of sticks and told them to break it into
two. Whoever finishes first would win. They quickly did this and started
fighting again. He then gave them another bundle of sticks and told them
to break it as a bundle and not separately. Despite their best efforts, they
could not do it. He told them it was easy to break the sticks individually.
But if you stay united, no one can hurt you. They finally understood the
value of unity.

Moral: There’s strength in unity.

The Bear and the Two Friends

Two friends were walking through the forest. Since it was dangerous, they
promised to stay close to each other. They see a bear approaching them.
One friend scurries up a tree, leaving the other one behind. The other
friend decided to pretend to be dead. The bear approached him, smelled
his ear and then left. The friend in the tree climbed down and asked the
other friend what the bear had told him. He replies, “The bear simply
advised against believing a false friend.”

Moral: True friends stick with you through all situations.

The Miser and His Gold

Once, there was a miser who would hide all his gold under the stones in
his garden. He never spent his gold, and without fail, he would count his
coins before going to bed every day. One day a thief spotted him counting
his coins. After the miser went to sleep, the thief stole all the gold. The
next day, the miser saw that all his gold was missing and started wailing.
His neighbours came running and asked him what had happened. The
neighbours asked him why he didn’t keep the gold in the house since it
would be easy to access inside. The mise revealed he never planned on
spending the gold. The neighbours told him he might as well save his
stones, as the unused gold was just as useless.

Moral: A possession is important only if you use it.

The Dog At the Well

On a farm lived a mother dog and her pups. The mother dog warned her
pups to never play near the well. However, one curious puppy decided to
peek over the well. He saw his own reflection in the well and assumed it
was another dog. He started barking at his reflection as he thought the
other dog was imitating him. He jumped into the well to fight the other
puppy, only to realise that there was no other puppy. He kept on barking
till the farmer came and saved him. The puppy never went back to the
well again.

Moral: Heed the warnings of those who are wiser.

Controlling Anger

There was a young boy who could not control his anger. He would say
whatever came to his mind, even if it hurts people. His father asked him
to hammer in a nail in the backyard fence whenever he got angry. In the
beginning, he used up a lot of nails. But as time went by, he started using
less. The father then asked him to start removing a nail each day; he
didn’t get angry. When he removed all the nails, the father asked him to
see the holes in the fence. He reminded him that the fence would never
be the same. Likewise, the things he had said to people could never be
erased.

Moral: Anger leaves scars on people.

The Leap at Rhodes

There was a man who used to travel to foreign lands. He would only talk
about his adventures and deeds. He claimed he had made a great leap in
a city called Rhodes. He bragged about it to no end. One listener told him
to prove it physically, and he could not.

Moral: It is the deed that counts.

The Wolf and the Sheep

There was a wolf who got injured while fighting a bear. He wasn’t able to
get himself food or water. One day a sheep passed by him. He asked the
sheep to get him water, so he had the strength to get solid food. The
sheep quickly realised he was the solid food, said he would not get the
wolf any water, and went away.

Moral: You can spot a person’s ulterior motives if you pay attention.

The Tortoise And The Bird

A tortoise was resting under a tree. On this tree, a bird had built its nest.
The tortoise mocked the bird for having a home built with broken twigs,
which it had to build itself. He bragged about his own shell and said the
bird must be jealous. The bird told the tortoise that its nest might be
shabby, but it had space for its friends and family. At the same time, the
tortoise’s shell could never accommodate anyone else except the tortoise
himself.

Moral: A crowded hut is better than a lonely mansion.

The Cows And The Tiger

Four cows lived in a forest. They were good friends who did everything
together. No other predators were able to kill them for food. One day, they
fought and decided to graze in different directions. A tiger saw this and
decided it would be easy to kill them now. The tiger hid in a bush and
killed the cows one by one.

Moral: There is strength in numbers.

The Four Students

Four friends who hated studying partied all night before their exams. They
asked the Dean to give them a second chance by lying about their
whereabouts. They told the Dean they had gone to a wedding the night
before, and on their way back, they had a flat tire, requiring them to push
the car all the way back. The Dean agreed to let them take the test again.
They studied hard for the exam. On the exam day, they were made to sit
in separate classrooms and were given only two questions:

 Your name

 Which tire of the car burst: a) Front Left b) Front right c) Rear left d)
Rear right

Moral: You may be smart, but there are smarter people than you.

The Stork and the Crab

There once was an old stork who could not catch fish anymore. As he grew
hungrier, he devised a plan. He told the fish in the tank that the farmers
would soon empty out the tank and grow crops there. He offered to take
the distressed fish to a bigger tank further away. The fish happily agreed,
but the stork would take them to a rock and kill them. There was also a
crab in the tank who wished to be saved. The stork, thinking he could try
some new food, agreed to take him. However, the crab quickly noticed the
fish bones on the rock. He immediately dug his claws into the stork’s neck
and killed him. He then went back to the old tank and informed the other
fish.

Moral: A sharp mind is your greatest strength.

The Camel And The Baby

A baby camel once asked her mother why they had humps, round hooves,
and long eyelashes. The mother explained that the humps could store
water, the rounded hooves were to help them walk through the desert,
and the long eyelashes protected their eyes from sand. The baby thought
over this and then asked her mother if they have all these qualities for the
desert, why are they in a zoo? The mother was dumbfounded.

Moral: Your strengths and skills are of no use in the wrong place.

The Rabbit and the Partridge

A partridge could not find food near its home, so it travelled far away to
some cornfields. It stayed there for a few days before returning home.
Meanwhile, a rabbit had found the empty nest and made itself at home.
When the partridge returned, they both fought over whose house it was.
The other animals suggested going to a judge. They found a praying cat
by the river and decided to ask for help. Seeing how the cat was praying,
they trusted it. The cat heard them both out but asked them to come
closer as he couldn’t hear well. When they got closer, the cat killed and
ate them both.

Moral: Don’t trust strangers no matter how friendly they seem.

The Wolf And The Shepherds

One day a wolf was chased away for trying to steal some sheep from a
farm. Later that week, the wolf returned to the farm, hoping to find food.
He found that the farmer’s family was eating lamb roast. He was
dismayed that he was chased off for wanting the same thing the farmer’s
family had done.

Moral: We are quick to condemn others without realising our own faults.

The Young Crab And His Mother

One day, a young crab was trying to move. But, he could only move
sideways. The mother admonishes him and tells him to walk forward by
pointing his toes out front. The young crab says he doesn’t know how, so
the mother gets up to show him. However, she cannot walk forward either.
She realises how unfair she was being and apologises to him.

Moral: Do not condemn others for what you cannot do yourself.

The Other Side Of The Wall

There was a young woman who was fond of gardening. She took great
care of her garden. One day she found a plant in a catalogue and decided
she wanted to plant it. She planted it at the base of the stonewall in her
garden. It quickly grew, but no flowers bloomed on the tree. She thought
she would cut it down, but her neighbour called her and thanked her for
the beautiful flowers blooming on its vines. She rushes over and realises
that the vine had crept through the crevices of the stonewall. The flowers
had bloomed generously on the other side.

Moral: You may not see the results, but that doesn’t mean your efforts
bore no fruit.

The Wet Pants

There was once a young boy in school. He had wet his pants and was
scared that his class would make fun of him. He noticed that the teacher
and a classmate were walking towards him with a goldfish bowl. The
young girl trips and drops the fishbowl in his lap. The rest of the
classmates think it is her fault for wetting his pants. Later, he asks her if
she did that on purpose. She tells him, “I wet my pants once too.”

Moral: We all have good and bad days. Your true friends will help you out.
Chinese Farmer Story

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. All
the neighbours came around that evening and said, “That’s too bad.” And
the farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back and brought
seven wild horses with it. And all the neighbours came around and said,
“That’s great, isn’t it?” And the farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day his son, who was attempting to tame one of these horses,
and was riding it and was thrown broke his leg. And all the neighbours
came around in the evening and said, “Well, that’s too bad, isn’t it?” And
the farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the conscription officers came around looking for people for
the army. They rejected his son because he had a broken leg. And all the
neighbours came around that evening and said, “Well, isn’t that
wonderful?” And the farmer said, “Maybe.”

Alan Watts (edited for clarity)

The moral of the story: We should be careful labelling the things that
happen to us as good or bad. The causal chain of the universe is complex
and infinite. Real-life stories continue even after the happy ending.

The Drunkard

A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight

and asks what the drunk has lost. He says he lost his keys and they both
look under the streetlight together. After a few minutes the policeman
asks if he is sure he lost them here, and the drunk replies, no, and that he
lost them in the park. The policeman asks why he is searching here, and
the drunk replies, “this is where the light is”.

David H. Freedman, Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us

The moral of the story: Truth and wisdom are found where you least
want to look.

The Scorpion and the Frog

A scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being
stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, both would sink and the
scorpion would drown. The frog then agrees, but midway across the river
the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked
why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature.
Unknown

The moral of the story: You can’t outsmart human nature. Be realistic
about changing vicious people; sometimes they even act against their
own interests.

Poseidon

Poseidon was sitting at his desk working. The administration of all the
waters was a huge task. He could have had as many assistants as he
wanted, and in fact he did have a large staff, but since he took his job
very seriously and went through all the calculations himself anyway,
assistants were of little use to him.

One couldn’t say that the work made him happy either; he only did it
because it was his to do. Yes, he had often requested happier work, as he
put it, but whenever they came back to him with suggestions, it turned
out that nothing appealed to him as much as what he was doing. It was
actually very difficult to find anything else for him.

It was hardly possible to put him in charge of a particular sea, quite apart
from the fact that the calculations involved were no less onerous, just
more trivial, since great Poseidon was only ever in line for an executive
post. And if he was offered a job in a different department, the very
thought of it was enough to turn his stomach, his divine breath became
restless, his bronze thorax quaked.

Not that they took his complaints all that seriously: if a great power kicks
up, then you have to be seen to give into him, even in the most hopeless
cause; no one seriously thought of having Poseidon removed from office,
he had been god of the seas from the beginning of time, and would have
to remain such.

The thing that most angered him — and this was the principal cause of his
unhappiness in his job — was when he got to hear what people thought it
involved, that is, forever parting the waves with his trident. And when all
the time he was sitting at the bottom of the ocean up to his ears in
figures, the occasional visit to Jupiter was really the only break in the
monotony; a visit, moreover, from which he usually returned in a towering
bad temper.

He hardly ever clapped eyes on the seas, only fleetingly on his hurried
way up to Olympus, and he had never sailed them as such. He tended to
say he was waiting for the world to end first, because there was bound to
be a quiet moment just before the end when he had signed off on his last
calculation and would be able to take himself on a little cruise somewhere.

Franz Kafka, Poseidon

The moral of the story: The only thing more insane than the modern
office workplace is what we make of it. Too often, it’s our ego that’s
keeping us from walking away.

Two Little Mice

Two little mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up
and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that
eventually he churned that cream into butter. And crawled out.

Frank Abagnail, Sr.

The moral of the story: It’s not over until it’s over. However, Mr
Abagnale must have read the Chinese Farmer Story. In an act of
foreshadowing, he ends the story by saying: “Gentlemen, as of this
moment, I am that second mouse.” He was right. His good luck didn’t last
much longer in the movie.

The Hanoi Rat Bounty

At the end of the 19th century, during French colonial rule, Hanoi was
plagued by rats. Driven by the desire to modernise the city, the Governor-
General instituted a bounty program. Citizens were paid a small amount of
money for each rat they killed. However, given the health risks, the
colonial government didn’t want piles of rat corpses to be handed over to
officials.

So instead they paid locals for every rat tail they brought in. The tails soon
became an object of value. The rat hunters soon realised that they didn’t
have to kill the rodents. A released rat with a cut-off tail could breed again
and produce more valuable tails. Needless to say, the bounty failed to
achieve the desired results. The rat plague was now worse than before.

Based on the Story of the Great Hanoi Rat Massacre

The moral of the story: Beware of Cobra Effects and the unintended
negative consequences of your intervention.

A Useless Life
A farmer got so old that he couldn’t work the fields anymore. So he would
spend the day just sitting on the porch. His son, still working the farm,
would look up from time to time and see his father sitting there. “He’s of
no use any more,” the son thought to himself, “he doesn’t do anything!”

One day the son got so frustrated by this, that he built a wood coffin,
dragged it over to the porch, and told his father to get in. Without saying
anything, the father climbed inside. After closing the lid, the son dragged
the coffin to the edge of the farm where there was a high cliff.

As he approached the drop, he heard a light tapping on the lid from inside
the coffin. He opened it up. Still lying there peacefully, the father looked
up at his son: “I know you are going to throw me over the cliff, but before
you do, may I suggest something?” “What is it?” replied the son. “Throw
me over the cliff, if you like,” said the father, “but save this good wood
coffin. Your children might need to use it.”

Unknown

The moral of the story: There is almost no limit to the compassion

parents have for their children. Having kids makes you care for your family
beyond your own death.

St. George in Retirement

After many centuries of hopelessness and superstition, St. George, in the

guise of Rationality, appeared in the world somewhere about the sixteenth
century. The first dragons upon whom he turned his lance were those of
despotic kingship and religious intolerance.

These battles won, he rested for a time, until such questions as slavery, or
prison conditions, or the state of the poor, began to command his
attention. During the nineteenth century, his lance was never still,
prodding this way and that against the inert scaliness of privilege, vested
interest, or patrician insolence.

But, unlike St. George, he did not know when to retire. The more he
succeeded, the more he became bewitched with the thought of a world
free of dragons, and the less capable he became of ever returning to
private life. He needed his dragons. He could only live by fighting for
causes—the people, the poor, the exploited, the colonially oppressed, the
underprivileged and the underdeveloped.

As an ageing warrior, he grew breathless in his pursuit of smaller and

smaller dragons — for the big dragons were now harder to come by.
Kenny Minogue, The Liberal Mind

The moral of the story: Not knowing when to quit is the first step of the
descent into madness. Beware of St. George in Retirement Syndrome, the
obsession with pursuing a laudable goal.

The Blind Men and an Elephant

A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had
been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and
form. Out of curiosity, they said: “We must inspect and know it by touch,
of which we are capable”. So, they sought it out, and when they found it
they groped about it.

The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, “This being is like
a thick snake”. For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like
a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said,
the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his
hand upon its side said the elephant, “is a wall”. Another who felt its tail,
described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that
which is hard, smooth and like a spear.

Encyclopedia of Perception

The moral of the story: Each of our perspectives can be true yet
incomplete. More things can be true at once.

Learning to be Silent

The pupils of the Tendai school used to study meditation before Zen
entered Japan. Four of them who were intimate friends promised one
another to observe seven days of silence.

On the first day all were silent. Their meditation had begun auspiciously,
but when night came and the oil lamps were growing dim one of the
pupils could not help exclaiming to a servant: “Fix those lamps.”
The second pupil was surprised to hear the first one talk. “We are not
supposed to say a word,” he remarked.

“You two are stupid. Why did you talk?” asked the third.

“I am the only one who has not talked,” concluded the fourth pupil.

Source: Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones

The moral of the story: …