Gratitude

Once upon a time, there lived a parrot on a banyan tree. A river runs across to the trees. One day, the parrot was sitting on a branch, and it saw an ant being carried away in the river water. The parrot, immediately plucked a leaf from the tree and dropped it into the river. The ant climbed on the leaf and saved its life.

Few days later, the ant, remembered the parrot, as it wandered near the river. It thought of meeting the parrot, which saved its life, and so, it stopped at the banyan tree. At the same time, it saw a hunter coming towards the banyan tree. The hunter approached the tree and aimed his arrow, towards the parrot with out wasting any time. The ant which was hiding and peeping from the leaves on the ground, immediately pounced and bit his leg. The hunter focus diverted due to the pain, and the arrow missed its target. Due to the noise, the parrot and other birds flew away. The hunter became upset and said, "I lost my food due to this bloody ant" and left the place. The parrot heard those words and went close to ant and said with gratitude, "If you had not come, I would not be alive by now. I will never forget your help". On hearing it, the ant replied, "The other day you saved my live with out even knowing me. You are the best. You are so kind hearted.". From then on, both of them became friends for life.


flow - when talking about direction
river runs-
adjacent vs runs across- for solid

A Friend In Need Is A Friend In Deed

Once upon a time near by a village, there was a pond known as Red pond, near a village. Fish living in the pond were well known for their intelligence. One day, a Crane named Bakamu, came to the pond, to drink some water. It saw lots of fish in the pond and felt very happy. It was surprised to see no other Crane around the pond. As soon as it drank water, it tried to catch fish in the pond. The fish escaped from it, just in the nick of time. The crane continued its attempts for 3 days, got exhausted and fell on the banks of the pond.

On seeing the Crane's pathetic state, Meenam, the King of the fishes, felt pity and said, "You seem to die with hunger. I will provide some food. Eat the food and leave this place". Meenam collected few insects and gave it to the crane. The Crane, felt very happy for the help. From then onwards, the crane visited the pond daily and met Meenam. Gradually, they became good friends.

Every thing was going fine until one day, a few fisher men came to the pond with nets. The crane noticed it and warned Meenam about it. The fish were alerted and none of them touched the net. The fishermen left the place saying, "we shall try again tomorrow". Bakamu heard the discussion and informed Meenam about it. Bakamu asked, if it can take Meenam and its family to a safe place. However, Meenam rejected the help.

The next day, while Bakam was in serious thoughts to save Meenam, it saw a lion sleeping under a tree. It got an idea, and pricked the lion on its nose. The lion got very angry and tried to catch Bakam. Bakam flew and escaped from it. Bakam continued to prick the lion at every possible instant, and managed to escape.  It made lion so furious, the lion chased the crane madly. The crane flew and finally rested on a tree, close to the pond. The lion became mad as it could not catch the crane. It sat under the tree and continued to roar with anger.  The fishermen, who were approaching the pond, heard the roar and turned back with fear. The fish were happy and conveyed their gratitude to the crane.

A clever young man

Once upon a time, a king named Bhuphathi ruled Mahendranagar. His minister was senile wanted to retire. Hence, the king thought to replace him with an young man. The king announced the recruitment of young minister in his kingdom. Many young men turned up for the prestigious position. King Bhupathi asked them a question, "In order to make the moon and moon light not visible to a person, what size of a plate should be used?". The king asked all of them, to write their answer along with their name on a paper and put it in a drop box.

Everyone present knew that it was a tricky question. Many were hesitant to answer such an abstract question. However, as they had already come to display their talent, they decided to give an attempt. Few of the answers were "as big as a mountain", "as big as bullock cart wheel" and so. One of them wrote, it should be slightly bigger than eye ball and should be placed close to eye.

King felt the right person was identified. However, to ascertain he was indeed clever, he decided to conduct one more test. King asked, "Person 'F' is father of person 'A'. However, 'A' is not son of 'F'. How is it possible?". "If 'A' is not a son, then it could be daughter", answered the young man.

King was mesmerized with his smartness, presence of mind and appointed him as minister in his cabinet.

Hidden Treasure

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer, Anjaiah. He had four sons. They were extremely lazy and roamed around as laggards. Anjaiah tried his best to change them. However, his attempts were futile. As Anjaiah became senile, one day he said to his sons, "Dear sons, I have a huge treasure. I wish to distribute equally among you four, so that you can lead rest of your life happily. However, I forgot the exact location where I hid the treasure in our farm land. Hence, it is your responsibility to dig and find the treasure". Anjaiah died few days latter after revealing the secret to his sons. Although the sons felt, finding the treasure is a humongous task, they started to excavate the land as they can enjoy the rest of their lifes. They dug the entire field, however, they could not find any treasure. At one place, they felt, they found some traces of treasure and so, they dug deep. However, it was just water.

One day, they sat in the field with clear distress on their faces, as their desire to find treasure was shattered. A passerby, on seeing the land and the well with water suggested, "Why don't you cultivate?. You have already dug the land, just put seeds and water it". The brothers felt, there will be some outcome for their hard work, if they cultivate. As the water was available, they got an excellent yield. It earned a good amount for them. Its then they realized, that the treasure their father referred was noting but to work and to earn a livelihood.  From then, they worked hard, lead the family and lived in happiness.

Concentration

Once upon a time, there lived four friends in a village. They loved shooting and practiced target shooting often. One day they went to a forest, to practice shooting. They suspended 4 pots from a tree at some distance and aimed to shoot them. First one attempted to shoot saying, "Forest is so quiet and I love it" and he missed the target. The second one tried saying, "City life is of no use before the forest greenery" and his attempt was also futile. Third one took his turn saying, "Fragrance from flowers is very pleasant" and failed. The fourth one attempted saying, "I feel like being in haven. Let us complete our job quickly and then roam in the forest", and he too missed his target.

An ascetic, who was watching them from a distance could not stop laughing. The friends got offended and challenged the ascetic, "Don't just laugh, shoot the pot if you can". Ascetic took the gun into his hands and broke the pot in single a shot. "How is it possible? Do you have any magical powers?", asked the friends in astonishment. I don't have any magical powers. One needs concentration to aim and shoot. You have seen the result as well. Focus should be on the target while shooting. However, your focus was on other matters. Ascetic left the place saying, "You failed due to lack of concentration". The friends realized their mistake, tried once again with concentration and succeeded.

Real Thief

Once upon a time lived a wealthy gold merchant, in Emperor Akbar's kingdom. The merchant had workers who assist him in the shop. One day, one of his workers ran away stealing money and jewellery from the shop. The merchant searched for him but in vain. A few years later, the merchant saw the worker in a market. The worker was wearing rich costumes and gold ornaments. The merchant could recognize him in spite of his rich attire as he worked in his shop for a good time. The worker also recognized the merchant, and realized that there is no way to escape. So, the worker immediately started to allegedly shouted, "You wicked person, at last I found you. Do you think, you can escape here as well.  Where did you hide the money and gold". The merchant was stunned with the worker's sudden drama. The merchant replied, "what are you talking. Why will I steal. You are the thief, and if you don't return the money and gold, I will report to security guards. Both of them started making allegations on each other. Finally they went to emperor's court for justice. After hearing both their allegations, the emperor asked Birbal to resolve the issue.

Birbal closely observed both of them. One of them was talking bravely while other was trying to cover up the disconcert. Birbal recognized the real thief, based on his observations. In order to expose real thief to public, he played a trick. Birbal asked both of them to place their heads outside of the window. After they followed his instructions, Birbal asked one of the soldiers to bring a sword. Birbal now ordered the soldier to draw the sword and  "cut the head of the worker who is lieing". On hearing the order, the worker who was pretending as rich man got worried and immediately took his head back from the window. In this manner, Birbal made the worker to expose by himself. Akbar praised Birbal, for his smartness, who made the thief to expose all by himself.

Eight and half camel

Once upon a time in a desert, lived a draft animal supplier, Ramaiah. He had 17 camels. He gave the camels on rent for transportation purpose and made his living. Over time, he became old and passed away. His 3 sons decided to distribute their inherited property. They were able to share all the properties except camels, according to the will prepared by their father before his death. According to the will, 1/2 of them were allocated to the elder son, 1/3rd to the second son and 1/9th to the third. Half of the camels means eight and half to the elder son, and similar allocation to remaining sons. Since they could not distribute in such a manner, they approached a wise man in the village, after much deliberation. The wise man asked to bring all the camels they had. Once they bought all the 17 camels, the wise man added one of his camel to the 17 camels and then asked them to distribute as per the will. The will suggested, elder son to get 1/2 of the camels.the elder son was allocated half of the camels, and so they gave him 9 camels. The second son was given 1/3 of 18 camels, which is 6.  Similarly the younger son was given 2 camels. In total, 17 camels - 9, 6 and 2 for elder, second and younger son respectively were distributed. The camel which was added by the wise man was left over and he took it back. The brothers were happy with the distribution and thanked the wiseman for solving the problem and returned home.

Good decision

Once upon a time there was a gurukul, in the kingdom of Mysore. A renowned guru administered the gurukul. Students stayed in the gurukul till the completion the studies. One day, a few students saw a fellow student stealing others belongings. They reported the issue to Guruji. However, Guruji didn't take any action on him. He continued with his teachings as usual. Few days later, the same student was caught again while stealing and fellow students reported the issue to Guruji. Guruji said, "I will look into the issue. Please carry on with your studies". Guruji spoke to the student and left him with out giving any punishment. The fellow students didn't like it and asked guruji to rusticate from the gurukul. If that doesn't happen they would leave the gurukul. Guruji replied, "Dear students, education teaches us to understand good and bad happening around us. You have realized this truth. Hence, there will be on impact on you, even if you go to other place for studies. However, your friend is yet to learn it. I will send your friend from this place, once he understands the same".
 
  Students were full of admiration for Guruji's rationale. The student understood his mistake and he didn't repeat such behavior ever after.
 

An young goat

Once upon a time in a village, there was a shepherd who had a herd of goats. Every day he used take the herd for grazing. One day,he brought a young goat along with the herd for grazing. He took the herd to a place full of grass. The young goat saw grass as far as it could view. So, the young goat liked the place very much. It started to graze wandering in all directions. Gradually, it went away from the herd. A wolf observed the young goat and followed it closely. Sometime latter, the young goat realized that it got separated from the herd. While it was searching its way home, the wolf came closer with a cruel stare. The young goat understood the situation and asked, "You will eat me now!! right?". "Yes", replied wolf. "Thats fine, can you eat me after some time. I ate lot of grass and my stomach is full of grass. I will taste like grass if you eat me know. If you wait for sometime, the grass will be digested", said the young goat. The wolf agreed, it waited for few mins and asked if it can eat. "No, it didn't digest yet. Let us dance for a while. Digestion will happen quickly. You can then eat me happily", said the young goat and started to dance funnily. The rationale was that, there was a bell tied to it. On hearing the sound of the bell, the shepherd may come, that was the goat's hope. However, the shepherd didn't turn up and so it stopped the dance. "What happened", the wolf questioned the goat. "Take this bell from my neck and swing it to your strength. It will make good sound. I will dance according to the sound," said the young goat. Wolf liked the goats dance which was funny, and started to ring the bell with all its strength. On hearing the loud sound of the bell, the shepherd who was searching for the goat, ran in that direction and saw the wolf. He ran towards wolf with his stick in hand. On seeing the shepherd, the wolf ran away in fear. The shepherd took the young goat into his arms and returned home. The young goat was thus saved from the wolf and returned home with the shepherd safely.