The Devoted Mother

A mother duck and her little ducklings

were on their way to a lake one day.
The ducklings were very happy
following their mother and quack-
quacking along the way.
All of a sudden the mother duck saw a
fox at a distance. She was frightened and shouted, “Children, hurry to the
lake. There’s a fox!”
The ducklings hurried towards the lake. The mother duck wondered what
to do. She began to walk back and forth dragging one wing on the ground.
When the fox saw her he became happy. He said to
himself, “It seems that she’s hurt and can’t fly! I can
easily catch and eat her!” Then he ran towards her.
The mother duck ran, leading the fox away from the
lake. The fox followed her. Now he wouldn’t be able
to harm her ducklings. The mother duck looked towards her ducklings and
saw that they had reached the lake. She was relieved, so she stopped and
took a deep breath.
The fox thought she was tired and he came closer, but the mother duck
quickly spread her wings and rose up in the air. She landed in the middle
of the lake and her ducklings swam to her.
The fox stared in disbelief at the mother duck and her ducklings. He could
not reach them because they were in the middle of the lake.
Dear children, some birds drag one of their wings on the ground when an
enemy is going to attack. In this way they fool their enemies into thinking
they are hurt. When the enemy follows them this gives their children time
to escape.
The Hidden Treasure
There was an old man living in his village. He had four sons and they were very
lazy. The old man fell sick and was counting his last days in bed. He worried a lot
about his sons’ future as the young men hesitated a lot to work. The sons believed
that luck would favour them.

The old man’s health deteriorated every day and decided to talk to his sons about
their future. However, his sons did not listen to him. The Old man played a trick to
let their sons realize the importance of work.

One day, the old man called all his sons and let them sit near him in his bed. He
said he had a treasure box with gold coins and expensive gems for them and wanted
to share the treasure equally and lead a happy, prosperous life. The young men were
very happy and asked where his father placed the treasure. The old man replied
them ‘I cannot exactly remember the place where I had hidden the treasure from the
others. However, the treasure box is buried in our land. I’m really not sure about the
place where I had hidden the treasure box.’

Even though the lazy young sons were happy, they were sad that the old man forgot
the place where the treasure was hidden. After a few days, the old man died. The
sons decided to dig the land to find the treasure box.

They worked very hard and dug their land. They could not find any treasure box in
the land. They decided to dig a spot in their land that remained a bit different from
the rest of the area. The sons believed that the treasure was buried in that spot. They
dug the specific spot so deeply, got nothing but water.

A passerby who noticed the dug land and water flowing from a spot talked to the
sons about agriculture. They sowed vegetable seeds and planted greens and flower
plants in their land. Since the land became very fertile with abundant water, within
a few weeks the land became a fertile garden with nutritious vegetables and greens.
The young sons sold the vegetables at a good price and earned a good amount of
money.

Then they realized that it was the hard work that was mentioned as ‘Treasure Box’
by their father. They defeated their laziness, worked hard, earned more money and
lived happily.

From this story, we learnt that hard work always pay.

Powerful Prayers
Kim and Ray were very close companions. They
were neighbours, studied together, completed their
graduation and worked together. They planned to
enjoy a vacation and took a sea voyage to explore
different places. Unfortunately, their ship wrecked
in the middle of the ocean. While most of the
travellers were unable to secure their life, only
Kim and Ray, who were able to swim, could save
their life by reaching an isolated island.
They were very happy and thanked god for saving
them. However, the island looked like a deserted island with hardly any
trees, and poor atmosphere that no living organism could survive. They
have no option other than praying to god to save their lives.
Kim and Ray sincerely prayed to god. Nothing happened even after a
couple of days. They decided to split their ways into opposite ends of the
island and challenged themselves about whose prayer would be powerful.
Both divided their region in the deserted island and offered their prayers
to god.
Kim prayed god that he would need food to survive. Surprisingly, he got a
pile of food, fruits and vegetables on the sea shore.
After two days, he requested for a beautiful girl as his wife, as he was
feeling very lonely in the island. In a few hours, a ship wrecked again in
the island near Kim’s region, where only a beautiful girl was alive! He
married the girl.
After a few days, he requested for more food and shelter. All prayers of
Kim were addressed by God.
It was almost a month after the ship wreck and Kim decided to move back
to his hometown. He prayed god to send him a ship to take him home.
Surprisingly, a ship came and took Kim and his wife.
Just before the ship was about to move, a voice appeared!
‘Are you going alone, leaving your companion of life here?’
Kim was surprised, ‘May I know who is this and whom you are referring
to? I have my wife with me!’
The voice said, ‘I’m the one whom you offered your prayers!, whom you
requested to save your life, whom you requested food and shelter and of
course, a wife!’
Kim happily stood on his knees and said, ‘Thank you god!’
Then god said, ‘But why do you leave your companion here?’
Kim was confused again!
Then god added, ‘Don’t get so excited my son. Your prayers are not
answered and fulfilled by me. I was only fulfilling Ray’s prayers. He
prayed only one thing to me! He said ‘Please fulfil all the prayers of Kim
and it is my only prayer to you.’
Kim was in tears and rushed to the other side of the island. He realized
that he did not even think about his best friend Ray and was happily
enjoying life with all pleasures.
He could not find Ray there and asked god 'Where he was?'
God replied, ‘I took him with me, the man with the golden heart should be
with me! But I will fulfil all your prayers as I promised him to do so!’
Kim was completely broken and realized that his friend’s prayers were
more powerful.
A Glass of Milk
There was a poor boy who made a living with selling
various objects door to door, to pay for his school. He was
very hungry and felt he couldn’t walk even a few steps. He
decided to ask for food at a house. He knocked the door and
was stunned to see a beautiful young girl at the door step.
With so much hesitation, in spite of his hunger, he asked the
girl to offer a glass of water.

The young girl understood his hunger through his eyes and
offered him milk in a huge glass. With astonished look he
drank the milk very slowly. And asked how much I owe
you for this milk?

The girl replied ‘I don’t accept anything for kindness.’ With big smile in his face,
the boy thanked the girl from the bottom of his heart and left the place.

Years passed by. The young girl fell ill and was diagnosed with the rarest kind of
nervous condition, which was a complicated condition to treat. While many
experienced doctors baffled at her condition, she was taken to a big hospital to
study about her condition.

Dr. Kevin, a renowned specialist was called in by the hospital to examine her. He
gave a visit to the hospital where she was admitted to learn about the rare condition.
As he entered her room, Dr. Kevin immediately identified who that woman was!

With all his efforts and knowledge, Dr.Kevin battled hardly with the disease for
weeks and months. At last, he won over the disease and the woman was completely
cured. Everyone praised the doctor, while the woman was quite afraid about the
hospital bill as she could not afford to pay.

Dr. Kevin asked the hospital to send the bill to him as he would add his charges.
After receiving the hospital bill, he wrote a note and sent it to her. With lots of fear,
she opened the bill and had no idea how much she was charged.

Her eyes filled with tears and happiness once she opened the bill. She found the bill
cancelled and that was not the reason for her happiness.

She saw the note written by Dr.Kevin - “Bill Paid years ago with a glass of milk!”
The Honest Auto Driver
It was a cold and windy night. My friend
and me met after a long time and were
chatting for hours. We did not notice that
time flew away and it was close to ten.
We decided to take an auto rickshaw to
go to our room.
It started raining and we hurried to get
into an auto rickshaw and reach our place.
None of the auto rickshaws stopped for us, except one.
The driver asked us where we wanted to go and we told the place. Without
talking anything about the fare, he said, ‘please get in!’ We thanked the
auto driver for stopping for us.
Since it was very cold, I asked the driver to stop in the mid at any small
restaurant or a tea shop. We liked to have a cup of hot tea. The driver
stopped near a small restaurant.
We ordered for tea and asked the driver to join us and have a cup of tea.
The driver refused. I insisted him to take a cup as it could be refreshing.
Again the driver refused to drink tea.
My friend asked, ‘Will you not take tea from this shop or what?’
Driver replied, ‘No Sir, I don’t feel like having tea now.’
I asked again, ‘But, why? A cup of tea will make no harm.’
The Driver with all smiles replied, ‘Thank you sir, but I’m sorry.’
My friend asked, ‘Do you have any habit that you won’t eat outside?’
The Driver said, ‘No!’
My friend became angry on the driver, ‘You think we are not equal to
share a cup of tea with you?’
The Driver remained silent and never replied.
I was really surprised at his behaviour and asked my friend not to compel
him.

In 15 minutes, we reached our mansion. We paid the fare and he thanked

us.
I stopped him, as I really wanted to ask him why he refused to drink tea.
He was thinking for a minute, and replied, ‘Sir, my son passed away this
noon in accident. I don’t have enough money for his funeral. So I
promised not to drink even water until I earn enough money for my son.
That’s why I didn’t drink tea when you offered. Please don’t mistake me.’
We both were shattered and offered him more money for his son’s
funeral.
I said, ‘Please take this.’
He politely refused, ‘Thank you for your generosity sir. In one or two
hours, if I get one or two more customers, I will earn sufficient money I
need.’ And he left the place.
He could have charged us double or even triple the usual rate due to rain.
Still, he received the nominal auto fare. In spite of his poor financial
condition, his deep sorrow, the auto driver remained honest and stood by
his words!
Be honest to all because honesty is the right policy.
Don’t desire to walk when you have wings to fly
Once upon a time there lived a generous, kind-hearted king. He was fond
of birds and animals and had a huge bird sanctuary in his reign. He
disliked harming the animals and birds and even did not kill them for the
sake of eating meat.

Owing to his generosity and kindness towards birds, he was gifted two
beautiful falcons by his fellow businessman. Those two falcons belonged
to a different place and lived in a different climatic condition.

The king thanked the businessman and ordered the head of the bird trainer to provide all the
facilities to those beautiful falcons and make them feel comfortable in their country.

The head trainer took the birds and provided all essentials to help the birds adapt to the
atmosphere. Gradually, the birds got adapted to the country’s atmosphere.

One day the king wanted to see the falcons fly as he heard that one
of those falcons fly to great heights at a very high speed.

The king was quite surprised and rewarded the bird trainer with
handful of gold coins. He enquired about the other falcon. The bird
trainer stated with regret that the other falcon did not move even a
step from the day one and just sat on the branch. The trainer also added that he tried everything
best he could do and still he failed to make this bird move.

The king consoled him and told the trainer that he would bring someone more experienced than
him or an old man who knew about falcons.

The king announced about his requirement to make the falcon move and
fly. Hearing this announcement, an old man reached the King’s palace and
assured him that he would make the bird fly like the other one.

The king asked the head trainer to take the old man to the sanctuary to train
the falcon and he told that he would visit them the next day to see if there
was any change.

The next day, the king was very surprised to see the other falcon fly like the first one to great
heights in rapid speed. The king was too happy and rewarded him handful.

The king asked what he had done to make the bird fly in a day. The old man simply replied, ‘I
just cut down the branch of the tree where the falcon used to sit.’

Many of us are like this. We have wings to fly, we know how to fly, and where to fly still we sit
doing nothing or doing something that makes us inferior to others.

Don’t try to walk when you have wings to fly!

The Old Witch

There was once a little girl who was very obstinate and disobedient. How
could such a girl be happy? One day she said to her parents, "I have heard
so much of the old witch that I will go and see her. People say that she is a
wonderful old woman and has many marvelous things in her house and I
am very curious to see them."

Her parents, however, forbade her from going, saying, "The witch is a
wicked old woman who performs many ungodly deeds and if you go near
her, you are no longer a child of ours."

The girl however would not turn back at her parents command. But went
to the witch's house. When she arrived there the woman asked her, "Why
are you so pale?"

“Ah!", replied she, trembling all over, "I am so frightened with what I
have just seen."

“And what did you see?" inquired the old witch.

“I saw a black man on your steps."

“That was a collier", she replied.

“Then I saw a grey man."

"That was a sportsman", said the old woman.

“After him I saw a blood-red man."

“That was a butcher", replied the woman,

“But oh, I was most terrified", continued the girl, "When I peeped through
your window, and saw none but a creature with a fiery head."

"Then you have seen the witch in her proper dress", said the old woman;
"for you, I have long waited and now you shall give me light."

So saying she changed the girl into a block of wood and then threw it into
the fire and when it was alight she sat down on the hearth and warmed
herself and said, "And now for once it burns brightly!"

MORAL : One who disobeys one's parent’s words will soon get into
problems.

In this story also the little girl disobeyed her parents and went on her own
way to meet the witch which was considered by her parents ad wicked. If
the little girl had obeyed her parents, she would have been saved from
death and would have lived well for a long time. Because of the
disobedience of her, she had to face the death at the hands of the witch
which entertained only bad thoughts about the little girl. So the children
should pay attention to their parents and heed them always. Thus they can
save themselves from dangers.