Stolen horse

Once a tired traveller who was riding his horse the whole day, saw a shady grove of trees. He got down, and after letting the horse to graze nearby, he lay down under a shady tree.

After a few hours, the traveller woke up and saw that his horse was missing. He searched around the grove but could not find his horse. He saw a stout stick lying on the ground. Now, he knew that someone must have stolen the horse. He picked the stick and started walking towards the nearby village.

Mended in the hole

On the other hand, Rinki thought that Minki would fill the hole. Both of them were depending on each other and no one mended the hole.

Soon snow started to fall and the chill nearly froze the insides of their warm nest. The snow flakes entered the nest through the hole. The lazy birds started shivering with cold, but no one was active enough to work.

In the morning both the birds were dead in their nest. They had shivered to death but due to laziness they had not got up to mend the hole.

The Class Monitor

All the students were excited because they were going for a picnic. The teacher called Amar and said, “Amar, I appoint you as the class monitor. You must make sure that all students get into the bus in a queue. No one must put their hand or head out of the window and keep a count of the number of students."

Amar said, "Yes, maam, I'll do as you say."

So, everyone enjoyed and had fun on the picnic. Then everyone sat in the bus to go back home.

Just then, the teacher saw Amar putting his head out of the window. She got angry and scolded Amar, "How irresponsible you are, Amar! I made you class monitor to control, others, but you yourself are breaking the rule. Shame on you!"

But Amar bowed his head and said, "Maam, I was acting per your instructions. I was looking out to see that no students should be left behind."

The teacher felt embarassed for scolding Amar without any fault of his.

Who Is The Fool?

One day Seth Kishanlal went to the city. In a jewellery shop window, he saw a real diamond. He went inside the shop and asked the shopkeeper, "How much does that diamond cost?"

"Two thousand rupees," the shopkeeper replied.
Kishanlal was a miser, so he said, "Will you sell it for a thousand rupees?" The shopkeeper refused.

Kishanlal thought, "I'll go now. I'll ask for it once again in the evening. May be he'll give it to me then."

So in the evening, he went back to the shopkeeper and said, "Will you give me the real diamond for a thousand rupees?"

"No, actually I had only a single real diamond which I've already sold for five thousand rupees," the shopkeeper said.

"You fool, that diamond was worth fifty thousand and you sold it for just five thousand only!"

"Sir, why didn't you buy it for two thousand in the morning? For a small gain you have incurred a heavy loss, "the shopkeeper said.

Lazy Birds

Once two birds named Rinki and Minki lived in a nest. Both of them were very lazy. They always found excuses for not doing any work. Once, on a cold winter day, a chilly breeze was blowing. There was some snowfall too. By chance, a hole was made in their nest. The cold breeze blew in through the hole and chilled the nest. Both the birds started feeling cold. Minki thought, "I wonder why Rinki is so lazy? Why is she not repairing the hole?"

For A Dollar

One day Golu was passing through a forest at night. As he was walking, a gang of dacoits surrounded him. They had knives and daggers in their hands. They stood around him and then their leader shouted at Golu, "Hand over whatever you have, money, jewellery, everything."

But Golu replied fearlessly, "I won't give you a single dollar. Do what you wish to."

The leader took out a pistol and aimed it at Galu, "You won't listen, will you?"

But strong Golu resisted them. He fought bravely but he was no match to them.

So the dacoits tied him by a rope. Then they started to search his clothes. They got only a one dollar note in his pocket and nothing else. Their leader said, "This young man fought and resisted so much just for a single dollar. Wonder what will he do to protect a larger amount! Now remember never to try and loot him if you see him, anywhere in future."

So they freed Golu and let him go.

The tale of two beggars

Once a king saw a dirty beggar rubbing his back against the palace gates. He summoned the beggar.

Then he asked the beggar, "Why were you rubbing your back against the palace gates." "Your Majesty, my back was itching, so I was rubbing my back against the iron gates."

The king asked the guards to give the beggar a hot bath and fifty gold coins. This news spread throughout the kingdom like a jungle fire.

A few days later, the king saw two poor and dirty beggars rubbing their backs against the palace gates. He asked them what they were doing and they replied that their backs were itching. The king called his guards and said, give these beggars fifty whiplashes on their backs to cure their itch."

"But, Your Majesty, you gave the other beggar fifty gold coins."

"He told the truth. Because he was alone he could not scratch his own back." But you are two men so you can scratch each other's back. You are here only out of greed."

The Intelligent Enemy

King Kalhetu was a cruel and greedy king. He had attacked many of his neighbouring kingdoms and defeated them too. But there was only one king, he had never been able to defeat. He was King Udayman of Vikramgarh.

Once King Kalhetu had invited King Udayman to have lunch at his palace. King Udayman accepted the invitation. He went to King Kalhetu's palace, but there, he was put in prison, Then King Kalhetu felt very happy. There were songs and dances in his royal court and he felt very proud indeed. Just then a guard came into the court and said, "Your Majesty, King Udayman of Vikramgarh has surrounded our kingdom with his army. He has attacked us. The man in the prison is not the king but an imposter sent by the clever king."

Now King Kalhetu had to give in to King Udayman. He promised never to attack any other kingdoms. He was also forced to ,grant freedom to other kingdoms.

The Qazi’s Justice

Once a just Qazi lived in Baghdad. One day a strange case was put before him. Three brothers came to him and said,
”out father is dead. Before his death, he said that, half of his property would be given to the eldest brother. The second brother must receive one fourth of his property and the youngest must be given one sixth of it. We have divided al1 the ­property this way. But we have eleven camels. How can we divide them?"

The Qazi went to the three brother's house and said, "Do you mind if I add my camel to your herd?"

"No, we don't," they replied.

Now, there were twelve camels. So the Qazi gave half of the camels to the eldest, which is six camels. Then the second brother received one fourth, which is three camels. Finally the third brother got one sixth of twelve camels, ­which is two camels. Then the Qazi took back his own camel. The brothers thanked the Qazi, for his just decision.

80. Tit For Tat
One day, a mango vendor stopped near a paan shop and thought, "Oh! I want to eat a paan, but I don't have any money with me."
By then, the paan seller had also seen the mango vendor. He thought, "Oh! Such lovely mangoes. I wish I could eat one of those juicy ones."

So the paan seller shouted out to him, "Hey, will you exchange a mango for a paan?"

The mango vendor agreed. But the paan seller took some rotten betel leaves and made a tiny paan. He gave it the mango vendor. When the mango vendor asked for chuna, he replied, "Go and rub the paan against the wall to get chuna."

The mango vendor realized that he was being cheated. He gave a green mango to the paan seller. On seeing the green mango, the paan seller said, "Give me a yellow mango."

The mango vendor replied, "Rub your mango against that yellow painted wall and you'll get your yellow mango."

What To Buy?

One day three penniless friends saw a rupee coin on the road. As the three of them had seen the coin together, each tried to claim it. Then they decided that they would not fight but they would buy some eatable with. !he money and share it equally.

First one said, "I want to eat something which tastes sweet."

Second friend said, "But I am Jeeling hungry. I want to eat a lot of things to fill up my hungry stomach."

At this, the third intervened and said, "But I am feeling thirsty. We must drink something that would quench my thirst too. "

An old man had seen them argueing. So he led them to a fruit shop. The old man took the rupee coin from them and bought a small Bunch of grapes. He said, “You can eat it because it is sweet. It is in large numbers as one of you wished and it is juicy so it will quench your thirst. I guess you won’t fight how”.
The three friends agree and enjoyed the grapes”.

The Enemies

Earlier, the mongoose used to be a poisonous animal. All the animals used to fear him.

One day all the animals, discussed how all of them were troubled by the mongoose's cruel attacks. It was decided that the mongoose was to be stopped from such acts. Then the snake said, "I can do this task easily." And then the snake told his plan to the others. In those days, the snake was not a poisonous animal. The snake went to the mongoose and said, "My friend, I am here to warn you. All the animals are coming in a large group to snatch away your sack of poison."

"Let them come. I'll bite them to death, "the mongoose challenged.

"You can fight the smaller animals, but not the larger ones," the snake said. So the trusting mongoose gave his poison sack to the snake for safekeep, but the snake never returned it to him. Since then, the mongoose fights with the snake to gain back his poison sack.

Elephant's Long Trunk

A long, long time ago, the elephants had a small trunk. It was not as long as it is now.

One day an elephant saw a crocodile on a river bank. The elephant teased the crocodile, and? said, "Hey, you crawling creatures, I wonder why you are not small like the other creatures. You are too long for your comfort."

The crocodile lost his temper at being called a crawler. So he said, "Now I'll show you how strong a crawling creature can be!"