Showing posts with label children stories. Show all posts

The grasshopper and the toad


A grasshopper and a toad were always seen together. Everyone thought they were good friends, yet they had never dined at each other’s house. One day Toad said to Grasshopper “Dear friend, come to my house and dine with me tomorrow. My wife and I will prepare a special meal and we will eat together.”

The next day Grasshopper appeared at Toad’s house. Before sitting down to eat, Toad washed his front legs and invited Grasshopper to do the same. Grasshopper did so, but when he rubbed his legs together he made a loud chirping noise.

“Friend Grasshopper,” said Toad “if you make such a loud noise I cannot eat.”
Grasshopper tried to eat without rubbing his forelegs together and making a noise, but it was impossible. Each time he gave a chirp, Toad asked him to be quiet. Grasshopper felt angry and could not eat in peace. Finally he said “Toad, I invite you to my house for dinner tomorrow.”

Toad arrived at Grasshopper’s house the next day. As soon as the meal was ready, Grasshopper washed his forelegs and invited Toad to do the same. Toad did so, and hopped towards the food.

“Go back and wash your legs again,” Grasshopper said. “They are very dirty from all that hopping about.”

Toad went back to the water jar, washed again and hopped back to the table. He was just reaching out for some food when Grasshopper stopped him. “Don’t touch the food with those dirty feet, “Toad said. “ Go and wash them again.”

Toad was furious. “It seems you don’t want me to eat with you,” he said. “You know very well I can’t move about without using my forelegs. They are bound to get a little dirty. I can’t help it.”

“Well, you are the one who started it yesterday,” Toad said. “You know very well I cannot rub my fore-legs together without making a noise.”
After that day, they were no longer friends.

Therefore it is said, if you want true friendship with someone, accept him as he is, with all his faults

Anshu Mishra

Golden Goose


There was a goose which had beautiful golden feathers. Not far from its nest lived an old woman and her two daughters. They were so poor that they never had enough to eat. The goose felt sorry for them and thought “If I give them one of my feathers each week, they can sell it and live comfortably on the money they get.”

The goose flew to the old woman’s house next morning but as soon as the old woman saw the goose she said “Go away, go away! I have nothing to give you.” But the goose said “I don’t want anything from you, old woman. I have come to give you something because I feel sorry for you and your daughters. Take this feather and sell it in the market. You can live comfortably on the money you get.”And the goose gave her one of its golden feathers. The old woman took it to the market and sold it for twenty gold coins. Her daughters and she had enough money now to buy food and clothes for themselves. They were very happy. Next week the goose returned and gave the old woman another golden feather. The old woman sold it for forty gold coins and bought food, clothes and many other things for herself and her daughters.

And so it went on for many months: the goose presented the old woman with a golden feather each week, which she sold at a very good price. Soon, she had become rich.
But now the old woman has became greedy. She said to herself: “The goose given me only one feather each week and I have to wait a whole week for it to return. This is very, very slow! It will take me many years to sell all the feathers that the goose has. Besides, it may stop coming to me. What will happen then? I must do something.”

  Next week, when the goose returned, the old woman grabbed hold of it and started pulling out its feathers one by one. Her daughters saw what she was doing and tried to stop her, but she would not listen to them. Soon, all the feathers had been pulled out. The goose was dead.

The old woman looked at the pile of feathers. “I will take them to the market and sell them,” she said. “Now we can really live in comfort!”

She looked again at the pile of feathers, and what did she see? The feathers were no longer golden but had turned into ordinary white feathers! The old woman’s greed had become her undoing.

Anshu Mishra

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)