1. The Golden Touch

In ancient Greek, there lived a king named Midas. He loved gold. He also had a beautiful daughter whom he loved even more.

One day, a satyr named Silenus passed out in Midas’ garden. Midas took good care of him until he got well. Dionysus, the god of wine and celebration, was a friend of Silenus. Upon hearing Midas’ hospitality towards his friend, Dionysus decided to reward the king. Midas wished that everything he touched would turn into gold when asked to wish for something. The god granted his wish. Midas touched everything in the palace, and it turned into gold. Soon he realized he couldn’t eat or drink and became terrified. When his daughter came to see him, he hugged her. His daughter turned into gold right before his eyes. He ran to Dionysus and begged him to take his power back and change everything back to how it was before. Dionysus agreed, and his daughter came back to life again.

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• Value to learn:
  Be happy, content and grateful for what you have.

2. Strength in Unity

Four cows were good friends – they grazed together and stayed together. Since they were always together, the lion could never kill them for food. But once, the cows had a fight. Each cow went different ways to graze. The lion saw this and decided to go for the kill. He hid behind the bushes, and when the time was right, he killed them all.

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• Value to learn:
  United we stand, divided we fall.

3. Count Wisely

Once King Akbar asked a question in the court that left everybody puzzled. He wanted to know how many crows were there in the city. Birbal said that there were twenty-one thousand, five hundred and twenty-three crows in the city. When Akbar asked him how he knew the answer, he simply told the king that he could ask his men to count the crows. He said if the number is more than what he said, it means that relatives of the crows from the nearby cities are visiting them, and if the number is less, it means the crows from their city have gone to visit their relatives who live in the nearby cities. Akbar was pleased with Birbal’s answer and rewarded him with a ruby and a pearl chain.

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• Value to learn:
  Explaining your answer is as important as having an answer.

4. Elephant and Friends

A lonely elephant wanted to make friends. So he asked a monkey to be his friend. The monkey said that he is too big and cannot swing on trees, and therefore he cannot be his friend. Next, he asked a rabbit. The rabbit said the elephant is too big to fit in her burrow, and therefore they cannot be friends. Later, the elephant met a frog and asked him to be his friend. The frog said the elephant is too big and heavy and that he cannot jump like him and hence he cannot be his friend. The elephant asked the fox and other animals, but he got the same reply.

The next day, all animals were running in fear of a tiger. The elephant stopped the tiger and told him not to scare his friends. When the tiger didn’t listen, he kicked him and scared him away. All the animals who initially denied his friendship said in unison that the elephant was the right size to be their friend.

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• Value to learn:
  Friends come in all shapes and sizes!

5. The Other Side of the Wall

A young woman inherited a beautiful garden from her grandmother. One day, she bought a beautiful plant and planted it next to the compound wall in her garden. She took good care of the plant. The plant grew beautifully, but months passed, not a single flower bloomed on the tree. Disappointed, she decided to cut the tree down. But before she could do it, she got a call from a neighbour thanking her for the beautiful flowers of the vine she had planted. The girl goes to the other side of the wall to see the flowers her neighbour was talking about. Indeed, beautiful flowers were in bloom, and she was happy that her hard work had paid off.

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• Value to learn:
  You may not see good results, but it doesn’t mean that your hard work didn’t bear any fruits.

6. Controlling Anger

A young boy had a bad temper. Every time he got angry, he would say or do things that would hurt people. So, his father gave him a hammer and a bag of nails. He told him to hammer a nail into the fence every time he got angry. For the first few days, the boy hammered plenty of nails. The number decreased as the days went by. He got his temper in control until one day he didn’t need to hammer a nail at all. Next, his father told him to remove a nail every time he managed not to lose his cool. When the last nail was out, his father told him that he had done well, but he managed to leave holes in the fence and that the fence would never look the same even if he repaints it.

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• Value to learn:
  Anger is dangerous. It can hurt people. Even if the wound is healed, the scar remains.

7. Two Frogs in a Pit

A group of frogs were searching for water in the forest. Two of them fell in a deep pit. They tried to jump but failed. The other frogs told the two frogs that it was nearly impossible for them to escape the pit and they should stop trying. The continuous discouragement made one of the frogs believe the other frogs, and he stopped trying and eventually died. The other frog kept trying and jumped so high that he escaped the pit. The frog who escaped the pit was deaf and could not hear the discouragement of the group.

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• Value to learn:
  Believe in yourself. You know yourself better, and people’s opinions will affect you only if you believe them.

8. The Milkmaid

Patty, a milkmaid, milked her cows and carried two pails of milk to sell them at the market. As she was walking, she started daydreaming about what she would do with the money she’d get after selling the milk and how she’d become wealthy. In her excitement, she skipped many steps without realising that she was spilling the milk from the two pails. When she checked her pails, it was too late – the pails were empty.

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• Value to learn:
  Keep your focus on the process of achieving success, not the success alone.

9. The Miser and the Gold

A miser kept his gold coins in a pit under some stones in his garden. Every night, he would count his coins and then go to sleep. But he never used the gold to buy anything. A thief knew about the miser’s routine and stole the coins from the garden one day. When the miser couldn’t find the gold coins, he started crying. Listening to his cries, a neighbour inquired about what had happened. On hearing his story, the neighbour told him he should have kept the gold in the house for easy access to spend it whenever he needed it. The miser told him that he saved the gold but never meant to use it. The neighbour then threw a stone at him and said that his gold was as worthless as the stone.

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• Value to learn:
  A possession is worthy only if it’s used.

10. The Fox and the Stork

A fox invited a stork for dinner and served soup in a shallow bowl. Because of its long beak, the stork couldn’t drink the soup, but the fox licked his soup away comfortably. The stork was angry but didn’t show her anger. She wanted to teach the fox a lesson. So she invited the fox for dinner at her place and served soup in a narrow vase. The fox couldn’t drink the soup. He then realised his mistake and went home hungry.

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• Value to learn:
  Selfishness backfires – sooner or later!