DON'T CHANGE THE WORLD

  Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather.   Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?”   The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself.

  There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself - your heart; and not the world.

LEARN FROM MISTAKES

  

Thomas Edison tried two thousand different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.” Edison replied very confidently, “Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We now know that there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.”

THE ANT AND THE DOVE

   One hot day, an ant was searching for some water. After walking around for some time, she came to a spring. To reach the spring, she had to climb up a blade of grass. While making her way up, she slipped and fell into the water. She could have drowned if a dove up a nearby tree had not seen her. Seeing that the ant was in trouble, the dove quickly plucked off a leaf and dropped it into the water near the struggling ant. The ant moved towards the leaf and climbed up there. Soon it carried her safely to dry ground.

   Just at that time, a hunter nearby was throwing out his net towards the dove, hoping to trap it. Guessing what he was about to do, the ant quickly bit him on the heel. Feeling the pain, the hunter dropped his net. The dove was quick to fly away to safety.

                 One good turn deserves another.

THE BOY WHO CRIED 'WOLF'

   Once there was a shepherd boy who had to look after a flock of sheep. One day, he felt bored and decided to play a trick on the villagers. He shouted, “Help! Wolf! Wolf!”

   The villagers heard his cries and rushed out of the village to help the shepherd boy. When they reached him, they asked, “Where is the wolf?”

   The shepherd boy laughed loudly, “Ha, Ha, Ha! I fooled all of you. I was only playing a trick on you.”

   A few days later, the shepherd boy played this trick again. Again he cried, “Help! Help! Wolf! Wolf!” Again, the villagers rushed up the hill to help him and again they found that boy had tricked them. They were very angry with him for being so naughty. Then, some time later, a wolf went into the field. The wolf attacked one sheep, and then another and another. The shepherd boy ran towards the village shouting, “Help! Help! Wolf! Help! Somebody!”

   The villagers heard his cries but they laughed because they thought it was another trick. The boy ran to the nearest villager and said, “A wolf is attacking the sheep. I lied before, but this time it is true!”

   Finally, the villagers went to look. It was true. They could see the wolf running away and many dead sheep lying on the grass.

  We may not believe someone who often tells lies, even when he tells the truth.

THE FARMER AND THE STORK

   Finding that cranes were destroying his newly sown corn, a farmer one evening set a net in his field to catch the destructive birds. When he went to examine the net next morning he found a number of cranes and also a stork.

   “Release me, I beseech you,” cried the stork, “for I have eaten none of your corn, nor have I done you any harm. I am a poor innocent stork, as you may see - a most dutiful bird, I honor my father and mother. I...” But the farmer cut him short. “All this may be true enough, I dare say, but I have caught you with those were destroying my crops, and you must suffer with the company in which you are found.”

     People are judged by the company they keep.

THE FOX AND THE GRAPES

   It was a sunny day and fox was walking across the fields. Soon he came to a vineyard. As he came nearer, he could see some bunches of juicy grapes. The fox looked carefully around him. He had to make sure that he was safe from the hunters.

He decided to steal some before anyone came along. He jumped upwards but he could not reach the grapes. He jumped again as high as he could. He still could not reach them. The grapes were just too high for him!  He was not ready to give up. He backed off, took some running steps and leapt into the air towards the grapes. Again he failed to reach them.

    It was getting dark, and he was getting angry. His legs hurt with all that running and jumping. At last he stopped trying. As he walked away, he said to himself, “I don’t really want those grapes. I’m sure they are too sour to eat.”

        Sometimes when we cannot get what we want,

      we pretend that it is not worth having.

THE FOX AND THE STORK

A selfish fox once invited a stork to dinner at his home in a hollow tree. That evening, the stork flew to the fox’s home and knocked on the door with her long beak. The fox opened the door and said, “Please come in and share my food.”

The stork was invited to sit down at the table. She was very hungry and the food smelled delicious!

   The fox served soup in shallow bowls and he licked up all his soup very quickly. However, the stork could not have any of it as the bowl was too shallow for her long beak. The poor stork just smiled politely and stayed hungry.

   The selfish fox asked, “Stork, why haven’t you taken your soup? Don’t you like it?” The stork replied, “It was very kind of you to invite me for dinner. Tomorrow evening, please join me for dinner at my home.”

   The next day, when the fox arrived at the stork’s home, he saw that they were also having soup for dinner. This time the soup was served in tall jugs. The stork drank the soup easily but the fox could not reach inside the tall jug. This time it was his turn to go hungry.

                             A selfish act can backfire on you.