Gold Coins and a Selfish Man

Sam was a greedy and a selfish man. He always desired to have lots and lots of money and never hesitated to cheat others to make money. Also, he never wished to share anything with others. He was so selfish that he would like to own everything for himself.
The selfish man used to calculate each and every small aspect. He paid very little amount of wages to his servants. Where ever he went, he calculated a lot to save money by deceiving others. He also told a lot of lies to protect his wealth. Simply, Sam was the antonym for the word; HONESTY.
However, he was taught a nice lesson by his own act.
One day, he missed a small bag, which contained 50 gold coins. He was searching for the bag of gold coins, day and night. He sent his workers in search of the bag, but none could find it. He told his friends and neighbors that he had lost a bag of gold coins and requested them to inform him, if they found it. Sam was so sad that he had lost so many gold coins.
After a couple of days, a ten year old girl, who lived near Sam’s house, told her father that she had found a small bag and that it had 50 gold coins. Her father worked in Sam’s land and he told his daughter that the bag belonged to his master. He had lost it two days ago, and added that he would return the bag to his master.
They weren’t very rich, and the father could have easily retained the gold coins, and hide the fact of finding the bag. He was so honest that he felt that he should return the valuable coins to his master, as he was the rightful owner.
He gave the bag back to his master Sam, and asked him to check whether the bag had 50 gold coins. Sam who was literally happy to get the coins, decided to play a trick. He shouted at his worker, ‘there were 75 gold coins in this bag and you gave me only 50! Where are the other coins? You have stolen them!’
The worker was shocked to hear this, and he pleaded to his master that he gave whatever his daughter had found. Selfish and greedy, Sam did not accept the worker’s story, and decided to take the issue to court.
The judge heard both the sides. He questioned the daughter and the worker about the number of coins they had found in the bag, and they assured it was only 50.
He cross-examined Sam and Sam replied, ‘Yes m’lord, I had 75 gold coins in my bag, and they gave me only 50. Hence, it is quite obvious that they have stolen the balance 25 coins!’
Judge then asked, ‘Are you sure you that your bag had 75 coins?’ and Sam nodded his head in acceptance.
The judge then made his judgment, ‘Since Sam lost a bag of 75 gold coins and the bag found by the girl had only 50 coins, it is obvious that the bag found, didn’t belong to Sam, and it was lost by someone else. In addition, if anyone found a bag of 75 gold coins, I will declare that it belongs to Sam. As there are no claims against the loss of 50 coins, I order the girl and his father to take those 50 coins as a token of appreciation for their honesty!’
Honesty will always be rewarded and greediness punished!

Proud Red Rose

One beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest. Many kinds of trees and plants grew there. As the rose looked around, a pine tree nearby said, “What a beautiful flower. I wish I was that lovely.” Another tree said, “Dear pine, do not be sad, we can not have everything.”
The rose turned its head and remarked, “It seems that I am the most beautiful plant in this forest.” A sunflower raised its yellow head and asked, “Why do you say that? In this forest there are many beautiful plants. You are just one of them.” The red rose replied, “I see everyone looking at me and admiring me.” Then the rose looked at a cactus and said, “Look at that ugly plant full of thorns!” The pine tree said, “Red rose, what kind of talk is this? Who can say what beauty is? You have thorns too.”
The proud red rose looked angrily at the pine and said, “I thought you had good taste! You do not know what beauty is at all. You can not compare my thorns to that of the cactus.”
“What a proud flower”, thought the trees.
The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus, but it could not move. As the days passed,the red rose would look at the cactus and say insulting things, like: This plant is useless? How sorry I am to be his neighbor.
The cactus never got upset and he even tried to advise the rose, saying, “God did not create any form of life without a purpose.”
Spring passed, and the weather became very warm. Life became difficult in the forest, as the plants and animals needed water and no rain fell. The red rose began to wilt. One day the rose saw sparrows stick their beaks into the cactus and then fly away, refreshed. This was puzzling, and the red rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that the birds got water from the cactus. “Does it not hurt when they make holes?” asked the rose.
“Yes, but the cactus does not like to see any birds suffer,” replied the pine.
The rose opened its eyes in wonder and said, “The cactus has water?”
“Yes you can also drink from it. The sparrow can bring water to you if you ask the cactus for help.”
The red rose felt too ashamed of its past words and behavior to ask for water from the cactus, but then it finally did ask the cactus for help. The cactus kindly agreed and the birds filled their beaks with water and watered the rose’s roots. Thus the rose learned a lesson and never judged anyone by their appearance again.

Hungry Fox who got Caught in the Tree Trunk

Once upon a time, there was a hungry fox that was looking for something to eat. He was very hungry. No matter how hard he tried, the fox could not find food. Finally he went to the edge of the forest and searched there for food. Suddenly he caught sight of a big tree with a hole 
Inside the hole was a package. The hungry fox immediately thought that there might be food in it, and he became very happy. He jumped into the hole and when he opened the package, he saw there were a lot of food, bread, meat and fruit in it!
An old woodcutter had placed the food in the tree trunk while he cut down trees in the forest. He was going to eat it for his lunch.
The fox happily began to eat. After the fox had finished eating, he felt thirsty and decided to leave the trunk and drink some water from a nearby spring. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not get out of the hole. Do you know why? Yes, the fox had eaten so much food that he became too big to fit through the hole.
The fox was very sad and upset. He told himself, “I wish that I had thought a little before jumping into the hole.”
Yes children, this is the result of doing something without thinking about it first.

Friends

Bunny rabbit lived in the forest. He had many friends. He was proud of his friends.

One day Bunny rabbit heard the loud barking of the wild dogs. He was very scared. He decided to ask for help. He quickly went to his friend deer. He said: “Dear friend, some wild dogs are chasing me. Can you chase them away with your sharp antlers?” Dear said: “That is right, I can. But now I am busy. Why don’t you ask bear for help?”

Bunny rabbit ran to the bear. “My dear friend you are very strong, please help me. Some wild dogs are after me. Please chase them away,” he requested the bear.

Bear replied: “I am sorry. I am hungry and tired. I need to find some food. Please ask the monkey for help”.

Poor Bunny went to the monkey, elephant, goat and all his friends. Bunny felt sad that nobody was ready to help him.

He understood that he has to think of a way out. He hid under a bush. He lay still the wild dogs went their way.

A Hole of Fence

In a small village, a little boy lived with his father and mother. He was the only son.The parents of the little boy were very depressed due to his bad temper. The boy used to get angry very soon and taunt others with his words. His bad temper made him use words that hurt others. He scolded kids, neighbours and even his friends due to anger. His friends and neighbours avoided him, and his parents were really worried about him.
His mother and father advised him many times to control his anger and develop kindness. Unfortunately, all their attempts failed. Finally, the boy’s father came up with an idea.
One day, his father gave him a huge bag of nails. He asked his son to hammer one nail to the fence every time he became angry and lost his temper. The little boy found it amusing and accepted the task.
Every time he lost his temper, he ran to the fence and hammered a nail. His anger drove him to hammer nails on the fence 30 times on the first day! After the next few days, the number of nails hammered on the fence was reduced to half. The little boy found it very difficult to hammer the nails and decided to control his temper.
Gradually, the number of nails hammered to the fence was reduced and the day arrived when no nail was hammered! The boy did not lose his temper at all that day. For the next several days, he did not lose his temper, and so did not hammer any nail.
Now, his father told him to remove the nails each time the boy controlled his anger. Several days passed and the boy was able to pull out most of the nails from the fence. However, there remained a few nails that he could not pull out.
The boy told his father about it. The father appreciated him and asked him pointing to a hole, “What do you see there?”
The boy replied, “a hole in the fence!”
He told the boy, “The nails were your bad temper and they were hammered on people. You can remove the nails but the holes in the fence will remain. The fence will never look the same. It has scars all over. Some nails cannot even be pulled out. You can stab a man with a knife, and say sorry later, but the wound will remain there forever. Your bad temper and angry words were like that! Words are more painful than physical abuse! Use words for good purposes. Use them to grow relationships. Use them to show the love and kindness in your heart!”
Moral – Unkind words cause lasting damage: Let our words be kind and sweet.