A Shoemaker and The Elves

Once upon a time, a shoemaker lived with his wife behind his workshop. The
shoemaker was a good man, and he worked hard, but he was very poor. He did not
have enough leather to make shoes. But if he did not make shoes, he and his wife
would not have any food to eat. He had only enough leather to make one pair of
shoes. He cut out the leather and then left it on the workbench. The shoemaker was
very tired so, he thought of making shoes in the morning.

The next morning, he found a pair of nicely finished shoes on his workbench.
Soon, a man came in and bought them for a good price. With the money, the
shoemaker was able to buy enough leather to make two new pairs of shoes. He cut
out the leather and went to sleep.

The next morning there were Two-pair of beautiful Shoe. The Shoemaker put
them in the window, and before lunchtime, he had sold both pairs for an excellent
price. It went on and soon, the shoemaker became a wealthy man.

The shoemaker and his wife wanted to know who was making all the beautiful
shoes for them. So that night the shoemaker left some leather in his workbench as
usual. Then instead of going to bed, he and his wife hid behind the curtains. They
saw two tiny elves dancing and sewing the shoes. The shoemaker was astonished.

They both decided to repay the elves for their help. So, they made some warm
clothes and tiny shoes for them. That night, instead of leaving leather on his
workbench, the shoemaker left the clothes and hid behind the curtain. The little
elves hopped up onto the workbench and saw the clothes and shoes that had been
left for them.

In the twinkling of an eye, they had dressed up. They were so happy. They
clapped and jumped excitedly, and danced on the table, singing silly songs.

The shoemaker and his wife never saw the elves again. They both never had any
problem again. They lived happily ever after.
 The Legend of Lake Toba

Once upon a time, there was a man who was living in north Sumatra. He lived in
a simple hut in a farming field. He did some gardening and fishing for his daily
life. One day, while the man was do fishing, he caught a big golden fish in his trap.
It was the biggest catc which he ever had in his life. Surprisingly, this fish turned
into a beautiful princess.

He felt in love with her and proposed her to be his wife. She said, "Yes, but you
have to promise not to tell anyone about the secret that I was once a fish, otherwise
there will be ahuge disaster". The man made the deal and they got married, live
happily and had a daughter. Few years later, this daughter would help bringing
lunch to her father out in the fields.

One day, his daughter was so hungry and she ate his father's lunch.
Unfortunately, he found out and got furious, and shouted; "You damned daughter
of a fish". The daughter ran home and asked her mother. The mother started crying,
felt sad that her husband had broken his promise. Then she told her daughter to run
up the hills because a huge disaster was about to come.

When her daughter left, she prayed. Soon there was a big earthquake followed by
non-stop pouring rain. The whole area got flooded and became Toba Lake. She
turned into a fish again and the man became the island of Samosir.
 A Golden Egg

Long time ago a remote village, in central China was inhabited mainly with
farmers and hunters.

One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock to flood. He prayed hard to God
for help or his family would die of starvation. Few days later, an old man with long
grey beard, passed by his house took pity on him. He gave him a goose and said “ I
don’t have any expensive thing to give you and hope this goose will help you to
ease your hardship.” A week later to almost surprise the farmer found and egg in
his yard.

This was no ordinary egg. It was a golden egg. He was suddenly overcome with
joy. Thereafter, his livelihood had rapidly improved but the farmer had forgotten
his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift. Strangely, the goose
only laid one golden egg every six months.

The greedy farmer lost his patient and slaughtered his goose thinking there were
plenty of golden eggs inside its stomach. Though he very much regretted for his
foolishness, it’s already too late.
 Dewa Sri

Once upon a time, Batara Guru commanded all the gods and goddesses to
contribute their power in order to build a new palace. Anybody who disobeyed this
commandment were considered lazy and would lose their arms and legs.

Hearing the Batara Guru’s commandment, Naga god was very anxious because
he didn’t have arms or legs. He might not be able do the job. So he asked advice
from Batara Narada who was the younger brother of Batara Guru. Unfortunately
Narada was also confused. The Naga god became very upset.

While the Naga god was crying for his bad luck, three teardrops fell on the
ground. Not long after that, those teardrops became three beautiful shining eggs
which looked like jewels. Then Batara Narada advised him to offer those shining
eggs to Batara Guru.

With the three eggs in his mouth, the Naga god went to the Batara Guru’s palace.
On the way, an eagle asked him a question. Surely Naga god could not answer the
question because he was holding the eggs in his mouth. Seeing that, the bird
thought that Naga god was arrogant and the bird attacked him.

Being attacked, one egg fell to earth. Then Naga god was hiding in the bushes
but the bird was waiting for him. The bird attacked for the second time and one egg
fell again. So Naga god only had one egg in his mouth. He kept moving to Batara
Guru’s palace.

Finally Naga god arrived at the palace. He offered the egg to the Batara Guru.
And miraculously the egg hatched became a very beautiful baby girl. Naga god
gave the baby girl to the Batara Guru. The baby grew up into a beautiful girl and
later known for Dewi Sri.
 The Proud Tiger

One morning there was a tiger who woke up and just felt great. He felt so good,
he went out and cornered a small monkey and roared at him “Who is the mightiest
of all the jungle animals?” The poor little monkey replied, “You are of course, no
one is mightier than you.”

A little while later, this tiger confronted a deer and bellowed out. “Who is the
greatest and strongest of all the jungle animal?” The deer was shaking so hard it
almost could not speak, but managed to say, “Oh great tiger, you are by far the
mightiest animal in the jungle.”

The tiger walked proudly to an elephant that was quietly eating some weeds and
roared at the top his voice, ““Who is the mightiest of all the jungle animals?”

Then this elephant grabbed the tiger with his trunk, picked him up, slammed him
down, picked him up again and shook him until the tiger was just a blur of orange
and black. Finally, the elephant threw him violently into a nearby tree. The tiger
staggered to his feet and looked at the elephant and said, “Man, just because you
don’t know the answer, you don’t have to get so angry!”
 The Biography of Warren Buffet

Warren Edward Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, the second of three
children and the only son of Leila (née Stahl) and Congressman Howard Buffett. He
began his education at Rose Hill Elementary School. In 1942, his father was elected to
the first of four terms in the United States Congress, and after moving with his family to
Washington, D.C., Warren finished elementary school, attended Alice Deal Junior High
School and graduated from what was then Woodrow Wilson High School in 1947, where
his senior yearbook picture reads: "likes math; a future stockbroker." After finishing high
school and finding success with his side entrepreneurial and investment ventures, Buffett
wanted to skip college to go directly into business but was overruled by his father.

Buffett displayed an interest in business and investing at a young age. He was inspired
by a book he borrowed from the Omaha public library at age seven, One Thousand Ways
to Make $1000. Much of Buffett's early childhood years were enlivened with
entrepreneurial ventures. In one of his first business ventures, Buffett sold chewing gum,
Coca-Cola bottles, and weekly magazines door to door. He worked in his grandfather's
grocery store. While still in high school, he made money delivering newspapers, selling
golf balls and stamps, and detailing cars, among other means. On his first income tax
return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his
paper route. In 1945, as a high school sophomore, Buffett and a friend spent $25 to
purchase a used pinball machine, which they placed in the local barber shop. Within
months, they owned several machines in three different barber shops across Omaha. They
sold the business later in the year for $1,200 to a war veteran.

At 15, Warren made more than $175 monthly delivering Washington Post newspapers.
In high school, he invested in a business owned by his father and bought a 40-acre farm
worked by a tenant farmer. He bought the land when he was 14 years old with $1,200 of
his savings. By the time he finished college, Buffett had accumulated $9,800 in savings
(about $112,000 today).

In 1962, Buffett became a millionaire because of his partnerships, which in January

1962 had an excess of $7,178,500, of which over $1,025,000 belonged to Buffett. He
merged these partnerships into one. Buffett invested in and eventually took control of a
textile manufacturing firm, Berkshire Hathaway. He began buying shares in Berkshire
from Seabury Stanton, the owner, whom he later fired. And so-on Buffet became a
billionare in 1990 and also became the richest investor in the world.
 Fisherman

Guess what happened when there was fisherman who threw a big fish back into the
water and keep only that small one? It is unusual incident, isn’t?

One morning, a man was crossing a narrow bridge. When he saw a fisherman under
him on the shady bank of the deep smooth river, he stopped to watch him quietly.

He saw that the fisherman took off the hook and caught a big fish. But he threw it back
to water. Then he put his hook and line in again. After a minute he caught rather big fish.
Again, he threw it back into the river. Then the third time, he caught a small fish. He put
it into his basket and started to get ready to go. The man on the bridge was very surprised,
so he spoke to the fisherman. He asked why did he threw those beautiful big fishes back
into the water and just kept only the small one.

The fisherman looked up and answered, “I only have a small frying pan.”

Poor fisherman!
 What Time is it?

A tramp lie down and sleep in the park. He had been sleeping for about 5 minutes
when a couple walked by. The man stopped, woke the tramp up , and asked him,
"Excuse me. Do you know what the time is?". The tramp replied, "I'm sorry - I
don't have a watch, so I don't know the time." The man apologized for waking the
tramp and the couple walked away.

The tramp lay down again, and after a few minutes went back to sleep. Just then,
a woman, who was out walking her dog, shook the tramp's shoulder until he woke
up again.

The woman said, "I'm sorry to trouble you, but I'm afraid I've lost my watch - do
you happen to know the time?" The tramp was a little annoyed at being woken up
again, but he politely told the woman that he didn't have a watch and didn't know
the time.

After the woman had gone, the tramp had an idea. He opened the bag that
contained all his possessions and got out a pen, a piece of paper and some string.
On the paper, he wrote down, 'I do not have a watch. I do not know the time'.

He then hung the paper round his neck and eventually dropped off again. After
about 15 minutes, a policeman who was walking through the park noticed the
tramp asleep on the bench, and the sign around his neck.

He woke the tramp up and said, "I read your sign. I thought you'd like to know
that it's 2:30 p.m."