Story Time

Once there was a boy who lived by the sea and the he loved to carve out little boats from the pieces of driftwood that came from that sea.

One day he found solid block of wood and decided to make a “best boat” from this.

He carved the wood, sanded, painted, and lacquered and turned it into the beautiful red colour boat.

He took his water tank and filled with water. He was excited. He put his little boat on the water, and watched it bob up and down on the water.

He was happy to look at the boat.

One day he waded into the sea, put his boat in water, suddenly a great wave descended on him and the little boat.

The wave immersed the little boat until it drifted far away from the boy and disappeared.

The boy started crying and searching for his boat.

Where is my boat?

The boy ran to his father, crying, and told - I lost my boat. His father tried to comfort him, to no avail.

His father took one piece of wood and made the same red colour boat and ahanded to his boy.

The boy hugged his father tightly, whispering, “Thank you, father, thank you ever so much! I love boat, this is a great fun!”

A group of monkeys decide to go on a fast one day.

The monkey chief advised, " Before we begin, we should keep the food ready with which we'll break the fast".

The monkeys nodded their heads in agreement and went to jungle in search of food.

They returned with huge hands of delicious-looking bananas.

"I think each of us should keep our share of bananas with us before we begin our fast,

so that we don't spend time distributing them after we break our fast." said the monkey chief.

The monkeys liked the idea and they collected their share of the bananas.

"Why don't we peel one banana and keep it ready to eat? " said one of the young monkey.

"Yes, let's do that," shouted a fat monkey in agreement. Just looking at the bananas was making him hungry.

"All right," said the monkey chief. "We shall peel the bananas but under no condition should we eat them."

So the monkeys peeled their bananas and carefully kept them ready for eating in the evening.

"Can I keep the banana in my mouth? I promise not to eat it till evening. Please!" a little monkey asked his father.

"Why don't we all put a banana in our mouth? That way we can chew it immediately when we break the fast," said his father.

So, the monkeys put the bananas in their mouths.

One by one they eyed each other uncomfortably as they began their fast -

and as you can imagine, within no time at all, the bananas disappeared down their gullets.

And that was the end of their fast!

Two friends were traveling together, suddenly they met with a bear on their path.

One of them climbed up quickly into a tree and concealed himself in the branches. The other didn't know how to climb a tree.

He thought for a second. He had heard animals do not prefer dead bodies. He fell to the ground and held his breath.

When the Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over, the Traveler held his breath, and pretended to be dead.

The Bear soon left the “dead” Traveler, for it is said a bear will not touch a dead body.

When the Bear was gone, the other Traveler descended from the tree, and asked his friend what it was the Bear had whispered in his ear.

“He gave me this advice,” his companion replied. “Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger.”

Two frogs had lived in a village all their lives. They want to go and see the big city. The city was about five kilometers away from the village.

They decided tomorrow they will go to see the city.

It was a hot day, and they soon began to feel tired. They had only gone a little way when one said to the other, "We must be nearly there.

Can you see the city?" "No," said the other frog; "but if I climb on your back I might be able to see it."

So he climbed up on the back of the other frog to see the city.

When the frog put up his head, he saw the village they had just left.

"Can you see the city?", asked the frog who was below.
"Yes," answered the frog who had climbed up. " I can see it. It looks just like our village."

Then the frogs thought that it was not worthwhile going any farther.

They went back and told the frogs round the village that they had seen the city, and it was just like theirs.

Round Bird is not like other birds. He has a big round body with little wings.

He can not fly but he wants to play with the other birds more than anything.

Every day and in many ways, he tries to fly. Then he tries again. But nothing worked.

Then he thought it might be better to use the tree. Round bird is determined to fly.

It is very hard for a little bird to do, but he climbs the tree. He sits on a branch and takes a deep breath.

Suddenly, he jumps! and flap his wings, and flap some more, but they don't work.

Good thing he made sure there was a pile of leaves! He scrambled out of leaves and sits and thinks a bit.

He now knows that even though he wishes hard and tries hard too, there are just some things some birds aren't meant to do.

The challenge for Round Bird, then, is to find those special things that only special birds can do.

A story by Lea McAndrews

A man had a little dog, and he liked the dog very much. He would pat its head, and take it on his knee, and talk to it and give it

little bits of food from his own plate.

A donkey saw the man and the dog from the window. The donkey said,

"Why does he not make a pet of me? I work hard, and the dog only wags its tail, and barks, and jumps on its master's knee. It is not fair."

Then the donkey thought, "If I do what the dog does, the master may make a pet of me."
So the donkey ran into the room. It brayed as loudly as it could. It wagged its tail so hard that it knocked over a jar on the table.

Then it tried to jump on to its master's knee.

The master thought the donkey was mad, and he shouted, "Help! Help!" Men came running in with sticks,

and they beat the donkey till it ran out of the house, and they drove it back to the field.

The donkey said to himself, "I only did what the dog does," instead to make a pet of me like dog they beat me with sticks. It is not fair.

There were two goats. Over a river there was a very narrow bridge. One day a goat was crossing this bridge.

Just at the middle of the bridge, there was another goat. There was no room for them to pass.

"Go back," said one goat to the other, "there is no room for both of us".

The other goat refused to go back. The first goat said, "You must go back because I am stronger than you."

"You are not stronger than I", said the second goat.

"We will see about that", said the first goat, and she put down her horns to fight.

But the second goat was wise and she said, "Stop, If we fight, we shall both fall into the river and be drowned.

Instead I have a plan- I shall lie down, and you may walk over me."

Then the wise goat lay down on the bridge, and the other goat walked lightly over her.

So they passed each other, and went on their ways.

A wolf caught a lamb. The lamb said, " I know you are going to eat me, but before you eat me I would like to hear you play the flute.

I have heard that you can play the flute better than anyone else, even the shepherd himself."

The wolf was so pleased to hear this. He took out his flute and began to play.

When he had done, the lamb insisted him to play once more and the wolf played again.

The shepherd and the dogs heard the sound, they rushed to the spot and drove the wolf away. And The clever lamb was able to get back to the flock.

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father wanted to teach him a lesson, so he gave him a bag of nails and

told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

On the very first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, the boy learned to control his anger, so

the number of nails hammered into the fence gradually dwindled down.

He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper even once. He told his father about it.

Pleased, his father suggested that he now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.

The day passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

He smiled and said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.”The fence will never be the same.

His father continued, "When you say things in anger, they leave scars just like these. And no matter how many times you

say you're sorry, the wounds will still be there."

The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said “I hope you can forgive me for the holes I put in you.”

“Of course I can,” said the father.

Once there was a man who had a big garden. He had planted mango fruit trees and cared for them till they bear mangoes.

Now he decided, he'll pick up the mangoes and sell to make money for his family.

One fine day while picking mangoes with his son, the man saw a stranger sitting on the branch of a tree and eating the mangoes.

The man become angry and shouted, “What are you doing on my tree? Aren’t you ashamed of stealing mangoes?”

The stranger on the branch just looked at the gardener but didn’t reply, and continued eating the mangoes.

The man was very angry and shouted again, “For a whole year I have taken care of these trees,

you have no right to take the mangoes without my permission so come down at once!”

The stranger on the tree answered, “Why should I come down? This is the garden of God and I am the servant of God,

so I have the right to pick these mangoes and you should not interfere between the work of God and his servant.”

The man was very surprised at this answer and thought of a plan to teach him a lesson. He called his son and said, “go bring a rope

and get this stranger down from the tree.”

His son brought the rope and the man ordered him to tie the stranger to the tree. The man then took a stick and started to beat the stranger.

The stranger began to scream. “Why are you beating me? You have no right to do this.”

The man paid no attention and continued beating him. The stranger screamed, “Don’t you fear God, you are beating an innocent man?

The man answered, “Why should I fear? This wood in my hand belongs to God and I am too the servant of God,

so I have nothing to fear, and you shouldn’t interfere with the work of God and his servant.”

The stranger hesitated and then spoke, “Wait don’t beat me, I am sorry for taking the mangoes.

This is your garden and I should ask you before eating the mangoess. So, please forgive and set me free.”

The man smiled and said, “Since you have now realized your mistake, I will forgive you but remember that God has given

all his servants brains so every person’s deeds are in his own hands.” Then the man untied him and let him go free.