There lived a black sheep in a nearby village. Every spring, he shaved his black wool and sold it to the villagers. The villagers made sweaters and socks from his black wool. One day, the black sheep noticed that he had some more wool left. He thought, ‘It would be such a waste if nobody wants to buy the wool.’ That afternoon, an old man came over to his wooden shed to see him. He wanted one bag full of the black sheep’s wool. Then an old woman came over. She also wanted a bag full of wool. A short while later, a little boy arrived. He also wanted one bag full of wool. Therefore, t ... read more

Goes Around, Comes Around One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you. He sa ... read more

Written by Guy de Maupassant With the first day of spring, when the awakening earth puts on its garment of green, and the warm, fragrant air fans our faces and fills our lungs and appears even to penetrate to our hearts, we experience a vague, undefined longing for freedom, for happiness, a desire to run, to wander aimlessly, to breathe in the spring. The previous winter having been unusually severe, this spring feeling was like a form of intoxication in May, as if there were an overabundant supply of sap. One morning on waking I saw from my window the blue sky glowing in the sun above t ... read more

The Four Friends Four friends live in a village which has been struck by famine. Three of them are extremely clever and learned and consider their friend Shivanand a lazy but practical fool. The four decide to go a place called Manasa, which is considered an asylum for scholars. On their way they have to pass through a forest. There they come across bones of a lion. Satyanand decides to show his knowledge by recreating the lion’s skeleton. The other friend reconstructs the lion’s muscles and structure. Vidyanand then wants to show his superior powers by breathing life into the lion. ... read more

There was an old owl that lived in an oak. Everyday he saw incidents happening around him. Yesterday he saw a boy helping an old man to carry a heavy basket. Today he saw a girl shouting at her mother. The more he saw the less he spoke. As he spoke less, he heard more. He heard people talking and telling stories. He heard a woman saying that an elephant jumped over a fence. He also heard a man saying that he had never made a mistake. The old owl had seen and heard about what happened to people. Some became better and some became worse. But the old owl had become wiser each and every da ... read more