Crows in the Kingdom One day Emperor Akbar and Birbal were taking a walk in the palace gardens. It was a nice summer morning and there were plenty of crows happily playing around the pond. While watching the crows, a question came into Akbar’s head. He wondered how many crows were there in his kingdom. Since Birbal was accompanying him, he asked Birbal this question. After a moment’s thought, Birbal replied, “There are ninety-five thousand four hundred and sixty-three crows in the Kingdom”. Amazed by his quick response, Akbar tried to test him again, “What if there are more c ... read more

The Boy and a Tree A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come andplay around it everyday. He climbed to the treetop, ate the apples, took a napunder the shadow.. he loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him. Timewent by.. the little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the treeevery day. One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad. ‘Come and play withme’ the tree asked the boy. ‘I am no longer a kid, I do not play around treesany more’ the boy replied. ‘I want toys. I need money to buy them.’ ‘Sorry, butI do not have money.. ... read more

This is the story of a very greedy rich man who chanced upon meeting a fairy. The fairy’s hair was caught in a few tree branches. Realising he had an opportunity to make even more money, he asked for a wish in return for helping the fairy. He said, ’All that I touch should turn to gold’, and his wish was granted by the grateful fairy. The greedy man rushed home to tell his wife and daughter about his new boon, all the while touching stones and pebbles and converting them into gold. Once he got home, his daughter rushed to greet him. As soon as he bent down to scoop her up in his arms, she t ... read more

The False Human Belief As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime can break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, ... read more

Mothers Sacrifice My mom only had one eye. I hated her… she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell… anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment. There was this one day during elementary school. I remember that it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school… “Your mom only has one eye?!” and they taunted me. I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, “Mom, wh ... read more