One day, a fox became very hungry as he went to search for some food. He searched high and low, but couldn’t find something that he could eat. Finally, as his stomach rumbled, he stumbled upon a farmer’s wall. At the top of the wall, he saw the biggest, juiciest grapes he’d ever seen. They had a rich, purple color, telling the fox they were ready to be eaten. To reach the grapes, the fox had to jump high in the air. As he jumped, he opened his mouth to catch the grapes, but he missed. The fox tried again but missed yet again. He tried a few more times but kept failing. Finally, the fox decided it was time to give up and go home. While he walked away, he muttered, “I’m sure the grapes were sour anyway.” A lion was asleep in the sun one day. A little mouse came out to play. The little mouse ran up the lion’s neck and slid down his back. The lion caught him with a great big smack! ‘I’m going to eat you!’ the lion roared, his mouth open wide. ‘No, no, please don’t!’ the little mouse cried. ‘Be kind to me and one day I’ll help you.’ ‘I’m a lion! You’re a mouse! What can you do?’ The lion laughed, very hard, and the mouse ran away. But the mouse was out walking the very next day. He heard a big roar, and squeaked when he saw the king of the jungle tied to a tree. But the mouse had a plan to set him free. The mouse worked quickly and chewed through the rope. The lion said, ‘Oh little mouse, I had no hope. You were right, little mouse – thank you, I’m free. You’re the best friend there ever could be!’ "One afternoon, I went to a shop to buy some ink. There was only one young shop assistant in it. He was reading a book. ‘I want to buy a bottle of ink’, I said. There was no answer. He was still going on reading his book. Then I asked again. He stood up and gave me a bottle of ink. When I was out of the shop, I found that the change he gave me was too much. So I went back to the shop. The man pulled a long face when he saw me again. ‘Now, what do you want to buy?’ he said angrily. ‘Nothing’, I said: ‘You gave me too much change just now. I want to give you back the money.’ ‘Ah, ah, thank you’, the man said with a red face." "One day, a lamb was eating sweet grass away from her flock of sheep. She didn’t notice a wolf walking nearer to her. When she saw the wolf, she started pleading, ‘Please, don’t eat me. My stomach is full of grass. You can wait a while to make my meat taste much better. The grass in my stomach will be digested quickly if you let me dance.’ The wolf agreed. While the lamb was dancing, she had a new idea. She said, ‘I can dance faster if you take my bell and ring it so hard.’ The wolf took the bell and started to ring so hard. The shepherd heard the sound and ran quickly to save the lamb’s life." "In a spell of dry weather, when the birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty crow found a pitcher with a little bit of water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt as if he would die of thirst. Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it was high enough so he could drink." "An old lady opens her window and looks out of it. The sun shines brightly. There is a young man in the garden in front of her house. The old lady looks at him and says, ‘He is cutting grass for me!’ She goes out into the garden and says to the young man, ‘Why are you cutting grass for me, young man?’ The young man says, ‘Today’s my holiday. You are old and live alone. I want to do something for you.’ ‘It’s so kind of you, my boy,’ says the old lady. ‘Come into my house and have a cup of tea.’ ‘OK,’ answers the young man, ‘but I must finish the work first.’ When the old lady goes out into the garden an hour later, the young man is not there. The garden looks clean and tidy. ‘What a nice young man!’ says the old lady." "On his deathbed, a father advised his son to always speak the truth. The son promised that he would never tell a lie. One day, while going to the city through a forest, he got surrounded by some robbers. One of them asked: ‘What do you have?’ The boy answered, ‘I have fifty rupees’. They searched for him but couldn’t find anything. When they were about to go, the boy called out: ‘I am not telling a lie. See this fifty rupee note which I had hidden in my shirt’. The leader of the robbers felt pleased at the truthfulness of the boy, and gave him hundred rupees as reward and went away." "Billy and Bobby were small boys. They were brothers, and they often fought with each other. Last Saturday the mother said to them, ‘I’m going to cook our lunch now. Go out and play in the garden… and be good.’ ‘Yes, Mummy,’ the two boys answered and they went out. They played for half an hour, and then Billy ran into the kitchen. ‘Mummy,’ he said, ‘Bobby’s broken a window in Mrs Allen’s house.’ Mrs Allen was one of their neighbors. ‘He’s a bad boy,’ his mother said, ‘How did he break it?’ ‘I threw a stone at him,’ Billy answered, ‘and he quickly moved down!’" "A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, ‘Did you not hear us?’ The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time." "A little boy once put his hand into a jar. The jar was full of nuts. He tried to take out as many as his hand could hold. But when he tried to pull his hand out, it was too large for the narrow neck of the jar. The boy didn’t want to lose his nuts. The little boy started to cry. His mother saw the little boy standing close by, and told him something wise. ‘Be happy with half as many, and you will get them easily.’" "A long time ago, a farmer took a big bag of seeds to sell at the market. Suddenly, his cart’s wheel hit a big stone. Bump! One of the seeds fell out of the bag and onto the hot, dry ground. ‘I’m scared!’ said the seed. ‘I need to be safe under the soil.’ Just then, a buffalo walked on the seed and pushed it into the ground. ‘I’m thirsty!’ said the seed. ‘I need some water to help me grow.’ Just then, it started to rain. The next morning the seed had a little green shoot. All day it sat in the sun and grew taller and taller. The next day it had its first leaf. This helped it to catch sunlight and grow. That evening a hungry bird tried to eat it, but the seed had roots to help it stay in the ground. Many years of sunshine and rain passed. The seed became a plant and then the plant became a tree. Today if you visit the countryside you can see the tree. It is big and strong and now makes seeds of its own." "The Owl always takes her sleep during the day. Then after sundown, when the rosy light fades from the sky and the shadows rise slowly through the wood, out she comes ruffling and blinking from the old hollow tree. Now her weird 'hoo-hoo-hoo-oo-oo' echoes through the quiet wood, and she begins her hunt for the bugs and beetles, frogs and mice she likes so well to eat. Now there was a certain old Owl who had become very cross and hard to please as she grew older, especially if anything disturbed her daily slumbers. One warm summer afternoon as she dozed away in her den in the old oak tree, a Grasshopper nearby began a joyous but very raspy song. Out popped the old Owl's head from the opening in the tree that served her both for door and for window. 'Get away from here, sir,' she said to the Grasshopper. 'Have you no manners? You should at least respect my age and leave me to sleep in quiet!' But the Grasshopper answered saucily that he had as much right to his place in the sun as the Owl had to her place in the old oak. Then he struck up a louder and still more rasping tune. The wise old Owl knew quite well that it would do no good to argue with the Grasshopper, nor with anybody else for that matter. Besides, her eyes were not sharp enough by day to permit her to punish the Grasshopper as he deserved. So she laid aside all hard words and spoke very kindly to him. 'Well sir,' she said, 'if I must stay awake, I am going to settle right down to enjoy your singing. Now that I think of it, I have a wonderful wine here, sent me from Olympus, of which I am told Apollo drinks before he sings to the high gods. Please come up and taste this delicious drink with me. I know it will make you sing like Apollo himself.' The foolish Grasshopper was taken in by the Owl's flattering words. Up he jumped to the Owl's den, but as soon as he was near enough so the old Owl could see him clearly, she pounced upon him and ate him up. Flattery is not a proof of true admiration. Do not let flattery throw you off your guard against an enemy."