A Merchant and his Donkey One beautiful spring morning, a merchant loaded his donkey with bags of salt to go to the market, in order to sell the salt. The merchant and his donkey were walking along together. They had not walked far when they reached a river on the way. Unfortunately, the donkey slipped and fell into the river. As it scrambled up the bank of the river, it noticed that the bags of salt loaded on his back had become lighter. There was nothing the merchant could do except return home, where he loaded his donkey with more bags of salt. As they reached the slippery riverban ... read more

A Unique Experience It was a cold and windy night. My friend and I had met after a long time, and were chatting for hours. We did not notice the time passing by, and soon it was close to ten in the night. We decided to take an auto rickshaw to go to our house. It started raining, and we hurried to get into an auto rickshaw and reach our place. None of the auto rickshaws stopped for us, except one. The driver asked us where we wanted to go and we told the place. Without saying anything about the fare, he said, "Please get in!" We thanked him and got in. Since it was very cold, I ask ... read more

Patty the milkmaid had just finished milking her cow and had two full pails of fresh creamy milk. She put both pails on a stick and set off to the market to sell her pails of milk. Along the way she started to think of all the milk in her pails and all the money she would get for them. ‘Once I get the money, I’ll buy a chicken’, she thought. ‘The chicken will lay eggs and I will get more chickens. They’ll all lay eggs and I can sell them for more money. Then I’ll buy the house on the hill and be the envy of everyone in the village. They’ll ask me to sell the chicken farm, but I’ll toss my h ... read more

Akbar once put a question to his court that left everyone puzzled. As they all tried to figure out the answer, Birbal walked and asked what the matter was. And so they told him the question. ‘How many crows are there in the city?’ Birbal immediately smiled, went up to Akbar and announced that the answer to his questions was twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-three. When asked how he knew the answer, Birbal replied, ‘Ask your men to count the number of crows. If there are more, then the crows’ relatives from outside the city are visiting them. If there are fewer, then the crows a ... read more

The Wolf and the Lamb Once, a little lamb was grazing on a meadow, along with a flock of sheep. Being very mischievous, the little lamb wandered some distance away from the sheep. It began to enjoy the fresh and delicious grass that it found there. It had come a long way from its group, but was unaware of that. The lamb was also unaware of another fact: a wolf was closely following it! When the lamb realized that it had lost its way and was far away from the flock, it decided to return and join them. However, the lamb was stunned to see a hungry and cunning wolf standing behind it. ... read more