"Three Fish"
Once three fish lived in a pond. One evening, some fishermen passed by the pond and saw the fish. ‘This pond is full of fish’, they told each other excitedly. ‘we have never fished here before. We must come back tomorrow morning with our nets and catch these fish!’ So saying, the fishermen left.
When the eldest of the three fish heard this, he was troubled. He called the other fish together and said, ‘Did you hear what the fishermen said? W must leave this pond at once. The fishermen will return tomorrow and kill us all!’ The second of the three fish agreed. ‘You are right’, he said. ‘We must leave the pond.’
But the youngest fish laughed. ‘You are worrying without reason’, he said. ‘We have lived in this pond all our lives, and no fisherman has ever come here. Why should these men return? I am not going anywhere – my luck will keep me safe’.
The eldest of the fish left the pond that very evening with his entire family. The second fish saw the fishermen coming in the distance early next morning and left the pond at once with all his family. The third fish refused to leave even then.
The fishermen arrived and caught all the fish left in the pond. The third fish’s luck did not help him – he was caught and killed.
“Monkey and Crocodile”
One day a monkey wanted to cross a river. He saw a crocodile in the river, so he asked the crocodile to take him across the other side. The crocodile told the monkey to jump on its back. Then the crocodile swam down the river.
Now, the crocodile was very hungry, so when it was in the middle of the river, it stopped and said to the monkey, ”Monkey, my father is very sick. He must eat the heart of the monkey. Then he will be strong again.”
The monkey thought for a while. Then he told the crocodile to swim back to the river bank.
“What’s for?” asked the crocodile.
“Because I didn’t bring my heart with me,” said the monkey. “I left it under the tree, near some coconuts.”
So, the crocodile turned around and swam back to the bank of the river. As soon as they reached the river bank, the monkey jumped off the crocodile’s back and climbed up to the top of a tree.
“Where is your heart?” asked the crocodile.
“You are foolish,” the monkey said to the crocodile. “Now I am free and you have nothing.”
The monkey told the crocodile not to try to fool him again. The crocodile swam away, hungry.
“The Three Sheiks and Queen of Arabia”
The Three Sheiks and Queen of Arabia
Maura, who liked to be thought of as the most beautiful and powerful queen of Arabia, had many suitors. One by one she discarded them, until her list was reduced to just threes sheiks, all equally young and handsome, rich and strong. It was very hard to decide who would be the best of them.
One evening, Maura disguised herself and went to the camp of the three sheiks, as they were about to have dinner, and asked them for something to eat.
The first gave her some leftover food; the second gave her some unappetizing camel’s tail; the third sheik, who was called Hakim, offered her some of the most tender and tasty meat. After dinner, the disguised queen left the sheiks’ camp.
The following day the queen invited the three sheiks to dinner at her palace. She ordered her servants to give each one exactly what they had given her the evening before.
Hakim, who received a plate of delicious meat, refused to eat it if the other two could not share it with him, and this act finally convinced Queen Maura that he was the man for her.
“Without question, Hakim is the most generous of you,” she announced her choice to the sheiks, “So, it is Hakim I will marry.”
“The Princess and the Pea”
There once was a prince who wanted to marry a princess, but it had to be real princess. So he went all over the world looking for a real princess. Everywhere he met young ladies told him they were real princess, but could never be completely sure that this was true. There was always something about them that did not seem quite right. And so, after along time, the prince went back home to his parents and was very sad.
One evening there was a terrible storm. It rained heavily and there was thunder and lightning in the sky above the royal castle. Then there was a knock at the castle gate. The old king went out to see who it could be.
A princess was standing outside the gate. The rain ran down over her hair and clothes and into her shoes. She told the king that she was a real princess, and he asked her to come inside.
“Well, said the old queen. We’ll soon find out if that is true. She went into the guest bedroom and took the mattress and blanket of the bed. Then she put a little green pea on the bed. She put twenty mattress on top of the pea, and then twenty mattress on top of the pea, and then twenty blankets on top of the mattress. This was where the princess was going to spend the night.
The next morning the queen asked the princess how she had slept.
“oh, it was terrible” answered the princess. Í didn’t close my eyes all night. I don’t know what was in my bed, but I lay on something hard, and now I am black and blue all over. It was quite a terrible night.”
Now, the king, the queen and the prince could be sure that this was a real princess she had felt the little pea trough twenty mattresses and twenty blankets. Only a real princess will be able to do that.
So the prince married the princess and the pea was put in a museum for everyone to see, unless someone has taken it, it’s still there today.
“Golden Eggs”
Long time ago a remote village, in central China was inhabited mainly with farmers and hunters.
One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock to flood. He prayed hard to God for help or his family would die of starvation.
Few days later, an old man with long grey beard, passed by his house took pity on him. He gave him a goose and said “ I don’t have any expensive thing to give you and hope this goose will help you to ease your hardship.”
A week later to almost surprise the farmer found and egg in his yard. This was no ordinary egg. It was a golden egg. He was suddenly overcome with joy.
Thereafter, his livelihood had rapidly improved but the farmer had forgotten his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift.
Strangely, the goose only laid one golden egg every six months. The greedy farmer lost his patient and slaughtered his goose thinking there were plenty of golden eggs inside its stomach.
Though he very much regretted for his foolishness, it’s already too late.
“Momotaro” Once upon a time, there lived in Japan a peasant and his wife. They were sad couple because they had no children. They kept praying to their god pleading to give them a child.
While cutting wood by a stream one day, the man saw a large peach floating on the water. He ran to pick it up. His wife was excited because she had never seen such a large peach before. They were about to cut the peach when they heard a voice from inside.
The couples were surprised to do anything. The peach then cracked open, and there was a beautiful baby inside. The couples were very happy, of course. They named the baby Momotaro, which meant ‘peach boy’.
Momotaro grew up to be clever, courage young man. His parents loved him very much.
One day, Momotaro told his parents hat he was going to fight the pirates who always attacked their village. These pirates lived on an island a few kilometers away. Momotaro’s mother packed his food, and his father gave him a sword. Having blessed Momotaro, they sent him off on his journey.
Sailing on his boat, Momotaro met an eagle going in the same direction. They became good friends; soon, both of them arrived on the island of the pirates.
Momotaro drew out the sacred sword his father had given him and began to fight the pirates. The eagle flew over the thieves’ heads, pecking at their eyes. Finally, the pirates were defeated.
Momotaro brought home all the goods that pirates had stolen. His parents were proud of him, and they were overjoyed at his victory and save return.
“Hermit” M
any years ago, there lived a hermit in a forest in Sumatra. He did not grow food but depended on the jungle fruit to survive. Soon, there was a drought, and all the plants and fruit trees in the jungle died.
The old man had nothing to eat now, so he turned to begging. He went to a nearby village trying to get some food. At first, the villagers were happy to help him. However, when he came continually, they refused to give him any more food. They told him to grow his own food.
One day, while the hermit was sitting in his hut, sad and hungry, he began to think about growing his own food. Just then, a boatman stopped by and taking a pity on hermit gave him some “paddy” seeds.
Before the boatman went away, he said, “These seeds will grow and give you everlasting harvest if you work very hard. If you are tired of the work, the “paddy” plants will turn into weeds.”
The old hermit worked hard to clear the land and sowed the seeds before the rain came. Strangely, after a short period of time, the “paddy” was ready for harvesting. The old man got a lot of rice from the harvest. After each harvest, the plants grew back again right away.
When the villagers heard about the hermit and his wonderful “paddy”, they flocked to his “paddy” field and took home as much “paddy” as they could.
One day, hermit became so tired of harvesting the “paddy then he shouted,” Oh, stop growing, you wretched thing!” As soon as he had said this, the “paddy” plants turned into weeds.
“Snow White”
Once upon a time there lived a little girl named Snow White. She lived with her aunt and uncle because her parents were dead.
One day she heard her uncle and aunt talking about leaving Snow White in the castle because they both wanted to go to America and they didn’t have enough money to take Snow White.
Snow White didn’t want her uncle and aunt to do this so she decided it would be best if she ran away. The next morning she ran away from home when her aunt and uncle were having breakfast. She ran away into the woods.
Then she saw a little cottage. She knocked but no one answered so she went inside and fell asleep.
Meanwhile, the seven dwarfs were coming home from work. They went inside. There they found Snow White sleeping. Then Snow White woke up. She saw the dwarfs. The dwarfs said, “What’s your name?” Snow White said, “My name is Snow White.”
Doc, one of the dwarfs said, “If you wish, you may live here with us.” Snow White said, “Oh could I? Thank you.” Then Snow White told the dwarfs the whole story and Snow White and the seven dwarfs lived happily ever after.
“The Fox and The Goat”
A fox fell into a well and couldn’t get out. By and by a thirsty goat came along. Seeing the fox in the well it asked if the water was good. “Good”, said the fox “It’s the best water I’ve tasted in all my life. Come down and try it yourself.”
The goat was thirsty so he got into the well. When he had drunk enough, he looked around but there was no way to get out. Then the fox said, “I have a good idea. You stand on your hind legs and put your forelegs against the side of the well. Then I’ll climb on your back, from there. I’ll step on your horns, and I can get out. And when I’m out, I’ll help you out of the well.”
The goat did as he was asked and the fox got on his back and climbed out of the well. Then he coolly walked away. The goat called out loudly after him and reminded him of his promise to help him out. The fox merely turned to him and said; “If you only had thought carefully about getting out, you wouldn’t have jumped into the well.”
The goat felt very sad. He called out loudly. An old man walking nearby heard him and put a plank into the well. The goat got out and thanked the old man.
“Hunting”
Once upon a time there was a man who liked hunting very much. He often went to the forest to hunt any animal he met.
One day he went hunting into the forest. He intended to shoot any animal he saw. He brought his gun with him. When he was searching for his prey, suddenly he saw a bird perching on a branch of a tree. It was a dove. When he was aiming his gun at the dove, suddenly an ant came and bit his foot. He was so startled that he didn’t shoot the dove. It was safe and then flew away.
Several days later, the dove was flying over a lake. He saw an ant floating on the surface of the water. It was the ant that had saved the dove’s life from the hunter. The ant was almost drowned. The dove got an idea, he picked up a big leaf and dropped it onto the surface of the water near the ant. Luckily the ant could get on the leaf.
The ant tried to bring the leaf to the edge of the lake and landed on the ground. The ant was safe because the dove helped him.
