Do you remember the stories that you read as a child? Moral stories can needn’t be serious, but they can be funny at the same time help your child learn something. We have compiled a list of 07 short moral stories that are inspirational, from India, and from around the world. <h3>1. The Boy Who Cried, Wolf</h3><img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/the_boy_who_cried%2C_wolf.webp_image_1638188646554.webp" width="359">There was a young boy whose father, a farmer, had asked him to take their herd of sheep grazing every day.One day, the boy was extremely bored as he watched over the sheep and so he cried: “Wolf! Wolf!”On hearing his cries, the villagers rushed to help him chase the wolf away and save the sheep.When they saw the grinning boy and realised he had cried wolf for his amusement, they scolded him and told him to not cry wolf!The next day, the boy cried out that the wolf was there. The villagers came, scolded him again, and left.Later that same day, a wolf came and terrorized the sheep.The boy cried, “Wolf! Wolf! Please help me.”But, the villagers assumed that he was pulling a silly prank again and did not come to his rescue. The sheep ran away and the boy cried.Moral of the story: Don’t lie or engage in foolish pranks, for no one will believe a liar even when he is telling the truth! <h3>2. The Golden Touch Of Midas</h3><img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/the_golden_touch_of_midas.jpg_image_1638188804006.jpg" width="365">A long time ago, there lived a king in Greece named Midas.He was extremely wealthy and had all the gold he could ever need. He also had a daughter whom he loved very much.One day, Midas saw a Satyr (an angel) who was stuck and was in trouble. Midas helped the Satyr and asked for his wish to be granted in return.The Satyr agreed and Midas wished for everything he touched to be turned to gold. His wish was granted.Extremely excited, Midas went home to his wife and daughter touching pebbles, rocks, and plants on the way, which turned into gold.As his daughter hugged him, she turned into a golden statue.Having learnt his lesson, Midas begged the Satyr to reverse the spell who granted that everything would go back to their original state.Moral of the story: Stay content and grateful for what you have. Greed will not get you anywhere. <h3>3. The Foolish Thief</h3><img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/the_foolish_thief.jpg_image_1638188856227.jpg" width="362">Once, a wealthy merchant came to King Akbar’s court to seek help from Birbal. He suspected that one of his servants had robbed him.On hearing this, Birbal thought of a clever plan and summoned the merchant’s servants.He gave each servant a stick of the same length. He told them that the thief’s stick would grow two inches by the next day.The next day, Birbal summoned the servants again. He noticed that a servant’s stick was two inches shorter than the others.He knew who the thief was.The foolish thief had cut the stick shorter by two inches as he thought it would grow two inches. Thus, proving his guilt.Moral of the story: Truth and justice will always prevail. <h3>4. Two Frogs With The Same Problem</h3><img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/two_frogs_with_the_same_problem.png_image_1638188962564.png" width="346">Once, a group of frogs was roaming around the forest in search of water. Suddenly, two frogs in the group accidentally fell into a deep pit.The other frogs worried about their friends in the pit.Seeing how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that there was no way they could escape the deep pit and that there was no point in trying.They continued to constantly discourage them as the two frogs tried to jump out of the pit. But keep falling back.Soon, one of the two frogs started to believe the other frogs — that they’ll never be able to escape the pit and eventually died after giving up.The other frog keeps trying and eventually jumps so high that he escapes the pit. The other frogs were shocked at this and wondered how he did it.The difference was that the second frog was deaf and couldn’t hear the discouragement of the group. He simply thought they were cheering him on!Moral of the story: People’s opinion of you will affect you, only if you believe it to be so. It’s better to believe in yourself. <h3>5. The Milkmaid and Her Pail</h3><img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/the_milkmaid_and_her_pail.jpg_image_1638189037353.jpg" width="348">There was once a milkmaid named Patty.She milked her cow and carried the two pails of milk she fetched on a stick and set out to sell the milk at the market.As she was walking to the market, she began to daydream about what she would do with the money she fo for the milk.She thought of buying a hen and selling its eggs and she planned on becoming wealthy.She dreamt of buying a cake, a basket of strawberries, a fancy dress, and even a new house with the money she would make selling the eggs and the milk!In her excitement, she forgot about the pails she was carrying and began to skip.Suddenly, she realised that the milk was spilling down and when she checked her pails, they were empty.Moral of the story: Don’t count your chickens before they hatch! It is important to focus on the process of achieving success and not just success alone. <h3>6. The Elephant Circus</h3><img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/elepahnt_circus.jpg_image_1638189224771.jpg" width="361">Once upon a time in a circus, five elephants performed circus tricks. They were kept tied up with weak rope that they could’ve easily escaped, but did not.One day, a man visiting the circus asked the ringmaster: “Why haven’t these elephants broken the rope and run away?”The ringmaster replied: “From when they were young, the elephants were made to believe that they were not strong enough to break the ropes and escape.”It was because of this belief that they did not even try to break the ropes now.Moral of the story: Don’t give in to the limitations of society. Believe that you can achieve everything you want to!<h3> </h3>7. The Elephants And The Mice<img src="https://bee-assets-production.s3.amazonaws.com/image/1_xvfat_v8xumqnkx7-3jcka.png_image_1638189285226.png" width="350">In an earthquake-hit village abandoned by humans, a colony of mice lived. Near the village was a lake, which was used by a herd of elephants.The elephants would have to cross the village to go to the lake. Thus, one day, as they walked through, they trampled a lot of mice.The leader of the mice met with the elephants and requested them to take a different route to the lake. He promised them that their favour would be returned in the time of their need.The elephants laughed. How could such small mice help these large elephants in any way? But then, they agreed to take a different route.Not so long after, the mice heard that hunters had caught the herd of elephants and were tied in nets.Immediately, they rush to rescue the elephants. They gnawed through the nets and ropes with their sharp teeth.The leader of the elephants repeatedly thanked the mice for their help!Moral of the story: A friend in need is a friend indeed. Make sure you help your friends out whenever they need it. They should always be able to count on you. That’s all folks!We hope children like these short yet interesting stories with morals that we have read growing up!There are more and more stories with morals on <a href="https://www.beeparenting.com/s/moral-stories" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bee Stories</a>.

Short stories with moral values will teach your children some important lessons which they will remember always.

07 Must Read Short Moral Stories For Children

Short stories with moral values will teach your children some important lessons which they will remember always.

Shina Utavani

There lived a huge king cobra in a dense forest. He ate all kinds of creatures like, “Frogs, Lizards, Bird eggs and every other small insect and animal.” He used to hunt for his food all night and would hide in his hole as soon as the sun would rise.All small animals began to fear the king cobra. This boosted up his pride. He began to think, “Now, I am the most powerful creature. I am the king of the forest. All the animals fear me.”The cobra was very lazy and soon he grew fat. Due to his fat, the cobra could not move easily from his old hole. So, he found himself a new hole which was a huge tree. The new tree had a huge group of ants at its roots. The cobra did not want ants near his house. He had a plan.As cobra was considered as the King of the forest, he ordered the ants to go somewhere else. The other animals around them were scared but the ants did not pay any attenion to cobra’s threats. The ants decided to teach cobra a lesson. They swarmed all over the body of the cobra and started biting him. Their bites causedunbearable pain to the cobra. He tried to pull ants away from his body but failed. He was in pain.After some time, the ants went away. The cobra was hurt and wounded. He was in severe pain. He was crying. All the other animals could only pity him. The ants taught king Cobra a great lesson. Moral:Bigger the ego, harder they fall. Powerful cannot face the small ones when they are in a large number.

This is a story of ant, cobra, fear and forest.Moral(s) of the story: ego

The Cobra and the Ants

Yesha Desai

Once, there lived a man who was very rich but was a miser. He had a great deal of money but he did not like to spend it on anyone. One day, he was very sad because ants had entered his bowl of sugar. So, he thought of drying the sugar in the sun to drive the ants out. He placed the sugar in a heap on a large piece of paper and kept it out in the sun. But he was worried that his friend, Subba Sastry might come and eat the sugar so he sat and kept watch next to it.Subba Sastry, who was very fond of sweets in any form, had seen the rich man keep the sugar out in the sun. He called his son and said, “I am going to the rich man’s porch to talk to him. After five minutes, come running to me, shouting ‘Our cow is dead.’”After giving his son these instructions, Subba Sastry went to the rich man’s porch and started talking to him. Subba Sastry asked the rich man why he was looking so upset. The rich man replied that he had been having a great deal of losses. Then Subba Sastry asked him what he was drying and the rich man replied by saying that water had fallen into some mud in his garden so he was drying it.Just then, Subba Sastry’s son came running to the porch shouting, “Our cow is dead! Our cow is dead!” Subba Sastry pretended to be grieving, and as was the custom, picked up one handful of the mud that was actually sugar and put it into his mouth. He picked up another handful and put it in his son’s mouth. The rich man was shocked to see this. He started shouting, “This is not mud! Don’t eat it. This is sugar.” Subba Sastry replied, “No, you told me that this is mud. It tastes like mud, too.” He went on eating till all the sugar was over. The miserly rich man was left sad and grieving over the loss of his sugar. Moral:If you lie, it can backfire on you.

This is a classic story from Tenali Raman.This is a story of ant and cow.Moral(s) of the story: honesty

Subba sastry and sugar

Once upon a time there was a huge haunted mansion. Nobody lived there but ghosts, spiders, beetles and lizards.There was a giant bathtub that they all used for bathing. They loved that bathtub dearly. Everyone was allotted different jobs to help maintain the bathtub.The ghosts kept the tub clean, the beetles ensured the plughole remained free, the lizards made sure that the taps were working properly and so on.However, one spooky spider noticed that the plughole of the bathtub was blocked by something huge and unmovable— a watermelon!The watermelon was so big that not even the biggest beetle, could move it.It was so big that not even the ghosts could magically shift it.They tried everything they could think of but nothing worked. In the end, they decided to just move away and find another house with a beautiful bathtub to haunt.Suddenly there came a tiny little non- spooky creature. She politely asked everyone if she could take the watermelon away to feed her children.The ghosts laughed. The spiders rolled their eyes, the lizards didn’t acknowledge her and the beetles tried their best to not take offense.The ant took this response as a yes and bit off a little watermelon. It barely decreased the size of the melon.The beatles said, “Wow, look the watermelon is gone. Good job weirdo.”The ant pouted and brought in her friends.Turns out that this weird foreign ant with doe eyes was very social and had lots of friends. They all came into the house and suddenly it was not so spooky.They bit off a little of the watermelon and suddenly it was all gone in their bellies.The ghosts looked at it in shock. The ants smiled, “Thank you for the dinner. You are not so scary after all.”

This is a story of watermelon, ants, spiders, beetles and lizards.Moral(s) of the story: judgement and hard work

The giant watermelon

Pallavi Hota

There was an ant who lived on a hilltop with his friend. He was very hardworking. He went on collecting food for the future requirement, while his friend slept all day and did no work. His friend asked the ant why he is always busy collecting so much food. The ant said the food was for future requirements because bad times never knock before coming. His friend laughed it off and went back to sleep.Winter arrived and there was snow all over and his friend had no food. He was starving and crying out for help. The ant helped him and gave him some of his food. His friend thanked him and realised his mistake. The winter passed and summer arrived. The ant again started collecting food. This time his friend also joined him. He said that he suffered and realised how important it is to be prepared for bad times. Both of them collected food and worked hard together. Moral:You reap what you sow.

This is a story of ant and friendMoral(s) of the story: hard work, laziness

The Ant and His Lazy Friend

Ravina Sewani

One hot day, an ant was searching for some water. After walking around for some time, she came to a spring. To reach the spring, she had to climb up a blade of grass. While making her way up, she slipped and fell into the water.She could have drowned if a dove up a nearby tree had not seen her. Seeing that the ant was in trouble, the dove quickly plucked a leaf and dropped it into the water near the struggling ant. The ant moved towards the leaf and climbed up onto it. Soon, the leaf drifted to dry ground, and the ant jumped out. She was safe at last.Just at that time, a hunter nearby was about to throw his net over the dove, hoping to trap it.Guessing what he was about to do, the ant quickly bit him on the heel. Feeling the pain, the hunter dropped his net. The dove was quick to fly away to safety. Moral:One good turn begets another.

This is a story of ant, dove and karma.Moral(s) of the story: benevolence, helpfulness and kindness

The Ant and The Dove

It was a hot summer day. A grasshopper was lying in the shade, relaxing from the heat of the sun when an ant passed by. The ant was dragging a huge seed of corn. “Ant, Ant, why do you work all day? Why don’t you come sing a song with me?” the grasshopper asked.“I am stocking up the food for winter," said the Ant, "and advice you to do the same." “Why bother about the winter?" said the Grasshopper; "We have got plenty of food at now." The Ant sighed and walked away with its seed.When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger - while it saw the ants enjoying their food that they had stocked in the summer. The Grasshopper realized that he was a fool to not consider the ant’s suggestion and mock the ant. Moral:Always be prepared for challenging times.

This is a story of ant and grasshopper.Moral(s) of the story: dedication and lying

ant stories

Kids moral stories help in improving their imagination & relate to real-world life. Here are age-specific bedtime stories for children by renowned storytellers.

The Cobra and the Ants

Subba sastry and sugar

The giant watermelon

The Ant and His Lazy Friend

The Ant and The Dove

The Ant and The Grasshopper

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