Shina Utavani

A long time ago, there was a farmer who had a donkey. The farmer used to take the donkey every day to the marketplace with a huge heap of wheat on its back.One day while walking the donkey accidentally fell into an empty well. The poor donkey cried loudly for hours. The farmer tried to figure out what to do. The farmer after hours of waiting, finally decided that the donkey was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway. To retrieve the donkey was not worth it.He decided to cover them well with the mud. He invited all his neighbours to come and help him cover the well with the dirt. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt in the well. When the donkey saw the mud, he cried miserably and loudly. But after some time, he stopped crying.After a few shovels, the farmer decided to look down in the well. He was surprised by what he saw in the well. The donkey did something amazing by every shovel of dirt thrown at him. the donkey would shake off the dirt and would take a step up. With each shovel of dirt, he would shake it off and take a step up.After some time, everyone was amazed when donkey stepped up over the edge of the well. Moral:Don’t give up easily. Shake it off and take a step ahead. Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of it. But all you need to do is shake it off and step up.

This is a story of donkey and farmer.Moral(s) of the story: smartness

The donkey in the well

There was once a baby camel who used to live with her mother. One day, the baby camel was lost in deep thought when she was lying on the ground with her mother. The mother saw her and asked what was wrong with her. The baby camel said nothing.The baby camel could not resist anymore and the next day, she said, “Mom, why do the camels have humps?” The mother smiled and said, “Well, the humps help us to store the water for days. As we are desert animals, we can survive without water because of our humps.”The baby camel had many questions to ask. She then asked, “Why do camels have long legs and rounded feet?” The mother replied, “They help us in walking in the hot desert. The long legs and rounded feet help the camel walk in the desert better than anyone else.” The curious baby camel then asked, “Mom, why do we have long eyelashes? Sometimes it bothers my sight.” Mother camel replied with pride, “My baby, these long thick eyelashes are your protective cover. The help us in protecting our eyes from the desert sand and wind.”The baby camel was again lost in her thoughts. After thinking for a while, she said, “Well, we have humps that help us in storing the water when we are in desert, the long legs help us in walking through the desert and these big eyelashes protect our eyes from the desert then what in god’s name are we doing here in the Zoo?”. The mother camel could not answer this question and become speechless. Moral:The moral for parents to take away from this story is to always try and answer your child’s question. If you don’t, your child will never be curious again. To some questions, you might not be able to give a satisfactory answer. At that moment tell them that you will get back to this question when they are of the age or when it is the right time.

This is a story of camel, desert and zoo.Moral(s) of the story: curiosity

Baby Camel and his Mother

Pallavi Hota

Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic about the brothers, Pandavas and kauravas. It describes the battle between them in the Kurukshetra war for the throne of Hastinapura. It is an epic tale that combines war, religion, philosophy and Hindu history. Following is a story from The Mahabharata.Sri Krishna and Arjuna once were guests of a widow. The widow had no children, nobody. She was all alone. But she had a cow. This cow was her only means of support. She used to sell milk, and by selling milk she used to sustain her life. At the same time she was a great devotee of Sri Krishna.When Sri Krishna and Arjuna visited her in disguise, she was so happy to see the two divine guests. She fed them with whatever she had in her house. Sri Krishna was extremely pleased with her surrendering attitude and her devotion. On their way back, Arjuna said to Krishna, ìYou were so pleased with her. Why didn't you grant her a boon? Why didn't you tell her that she would be prosperous soon, now that you are pleased with her?îìI have already granted her the boon that her cow must die tomorrow, replied Krishna. ìWhat? Her only means of support? She has only the cow, and nothing else. Without the cow how can she live on earth? asked Arjuna. Krishna answered, You don't understand me, Arjuna. She always thinks of the cow. The cow has to be fed, has to be milked, has to be bathed and so forth.ìI want her only to think of me, and when the cow is gone, she will think of me all the time, twenty-four hours. Then soon the time will be right for me to take her away from this world, and after a few years I will give her a better and more fulfilling incarnation. When she has nobody on earth, not even the cow, she will try and spend all her time, day and night, devoting herself to me. Otherwise, this way she will linger on earth and constantly think of the cow and not of me.

This is a story of Arjun and Krishna.

Krishna, Arjuna, the widow and her cow

Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic about the brothers, Pandavas and kauravas. It describes the battle between them in the Kurukshetra war for the throne of Hastinapura. It is an epic tale that combines war, religion, philosophy and Hindu history. Following is a story from “The Mahabharata” about Karna and his generous nature.There was a boy named Karna who was very kind and generous. He Duryodhan’s (eldest Kaurava) best friend. Karna used to help people in need. He never denied helping anyone. Karna had a routine of going for a bath to the riverbank every morning and offer his prayers to Sun-God. While returning, if he met a needy person, he would always give something to that person.Lord Krishna was aware of the generous nature of Karna. Once Arjun and Lord Krishna were having a conversation about Karna. Lord Krishna was impressed by Karna’s kindness and he was praising his generosity. Lord Krishna even said that he had never seen anyone as generous and kind as Karna. Arjun was amazed to hear that. Arjun argued saying that his brother Yudhishthir was also very generous. Lord Krishna said, “Yes he is but not as generous as Karna. Let me prove it to you that Karna is the most generous.” Arjun agreed.They both went to Yudhisthir the next morning. It was a rainy season. Yudhisthir saw Lord Krishna and Arjun and welcomed them both. He said, “I am pleased to see you. What brought you here early in the morning?” Lord Krishna replied, “Actually, some important construction work has to be undertaken immediately and we do not have enough wood. We need some wooden logs for that.” Yudhisthir called his servants and told them to bring the best quality wood for construction. After a long time, one servant came back and said that due to monsoon, the wood had become wet and they cannot use that for construction. Yudhisthir was helpless and expressed his helplessness to Lord Krishna and Arjun. After that Arjun and Lord Krishna went to Karna.Karna welcomed Lord Krishna and Arjun with great respect and love. He also inquired about their well-being. Then, Arjun expressed their urgent need of wooden logs for the construction. Karna immediately asked his servant to fetch some wood for construction. The servant took a lot of time to return. Karna was waiting for his servant. After some time, the servant returned saying that due to rain, the wood had become wet. After hearing this, Karna went inside his room and did not return for a long time. Lord Krishna and Arjun decided to go inside as he did not return for a long time. When they entered Karna's room, they saw him cutting the legs of his bed. He had already cut many pieces of his furniture. Looking at him cutting his furniture, Arjun asked, “Karna, why did you cut off your artistic sandalwood furniture?” He replied, “There is no other greater gief for me than to send away a person in need, empty-handed. This furniture can be made again but it was important to fulfil your urgent need.”Arjun was surprised to see the generosity of Karna. He said to Lord Krishna, “Karna is really very generous, I have never seen someone as kind as him”. This is one of the examples of Karna’s sacrifice and generosity.&nbsp; Moral:Friends, you just read about the generosity of Karna. Karna gave away his armour and earrings, which he had received as a blessing at birth. However, we are never willing to give even the smallest of our possessions to others. From this, we must learn that we too should be ready to sacrifice our things for the sake of the ones in need.

This is a story of Arjun, Karna, Krishna and Yudhistra.Moral(s) of the story: generosity, kindness and sacrifice.

Karna‘s Generosity

Ravina Sewani

One day long ago, some sailors set out to sea in their sailing ship. One of them brought his pet monkey along for the long journey.When they were far out at sea, a terrible storm overturned their ship. Everyone fell into the sea, and the monkey was sure that he would drown. Suddenly a dolphin appeared and picked him up.They soon reached the island and the monkey came down from the dolphin’s back. The dolphin asked the monkey, “Do you know this place?”The monkey replied, “Yes, I do. In fact, the king of the island is my best friend. Do you know that I am actually a prince?”Knowing that no one lived on the island, the dolphin said, “Well, well, so you are a prince! Now you can be a king!” The monkey asked, “How can I be a king?”As the dolphin started swimming away, he answered, “That is easy. As you are the only creature on this island, you will naturally be the king!” Moral:Those who lie and boast may end up in trouble.

This is a story of dolphin and monkey.Moral(s) of the story: boasting and lying

The Monkey and The Dolphin

Yesha Desai

One day, Akbar was riding near a mango orchard, when an arrow whizzed past him. The guards accompanying him rushed to find the culprit and caught the archer who had shot the arrow. He was just a young boy and was quivering with fear after being caught.When Akbar saw the boy, he asked him angrily, “Why did you try to kill me? Tell me which of my enemies has sent you here?”The young boy folded his hands and replied, “His Highness, I was not trying to kill you. I was just trying to knock down a mango with my arrow.”The Emperor was infuriated at the young boy’s careless way of shooting arrows and ordered his guards, “Put him to death in the same manner he tried to kill me.”The guards tied the youth to a mango tree and were getting ready to shoot him. Birbal could not stop himself from chipping in and addressed the soldiers, “Wait a second! If you want to shoot this boy in the same way he tried to shoot the Emperor, then you must aim at the mango; the arrow must miss the mango and then strike the boy.”Akbar realised his folly and understood that it was not fair to take away the youth’s life for something that he did not do deliberately. He ordered his guards to let the young man go scot free. The young man fell down on Birbal’s feet and thanked him from the bottom of his heart. Moral:Hasty judgement can have mighty consequences.

This is a classic story from Akbar Birbal.

Hasty judgement

Once upon a time lived on a cloud that was grown up over a very beautiful country. One day, she saw another much bigger cloud and she felt so much envy, than the cloud decided that in order to get bigger and grow more, her water would never abandon her, and will never start raining again.Indeed, the cloud grew up, while his country was getting dried. First, rivers dried up, then people, animals, plants, and finally, the whole country became a desert. The cloud did not care much, but she also did not realize that by being over a desert there was no place where she could obtain new water to keep growing. So slowly, the cloud began to lose size, and was unable to do anything to stop it .The cloud then realized her mistake, and that her greed and selfishness were the cause of her vanishing; but just before evaporating, when she was just a sigh of cotton, there started blowing a gentle breeze. The cloud was so small and weighed so little that the wind took her far away, to a faraway beautiful country, where once again she recovered her original size.Having learned this lesson, our cloud remained small and modest, but she became so generous when raining, that her new country became even greener, giving away to all people there the most beautiful rainbow in the world.Moral: Greed and selfishness bring with them serious problems.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

This is a story of cloud, rain and rainbow.Moral(s) of the story: greediness and selfishness

The greedy cloud

Once in a forest, there was a huge pond. In the pond, there lived a flock of cranes. All the cranes used to catch fishes from the pond and spent their lives happily. There also lived a cunning fox in the forest. His name was Tricky. He also visited the pond to catch fishes. Whitey, one of the cranes helped Tricky to catch fishes. Gradually, Whitey and Tricky started talking and became best friends. They used to talk, chat, eat, and play together.One day, Tricky invited Whitey to his place for dinner. He wanted to give a treat to Whitey for helping him. It was a Sunday evening and Whitey dressed up and left for the Tricky’s house. Whitey took some grapes with him. Tricky welcomed his friend to his house. They both were talking and suddenly the aroma of soup filled the place. Whitey was very hungry and could not resist the aroma. Tricky called him inside for the dinner.Tricky played a prank with Whitey. So, he poured the soup into two plates. Whitey who was excited to taste the soup was shocked as the soup was on the plate. Tricky enjoyed the soup while whitey could not drink the soup as it was on a plate. Whitey was very upset and returned home with an empty stomach. He decided to teach Tricky a lesson.Whitey met Tricky the next day and said, “I am delighted by the way you treated me. Let’s meet for dinner at my place today in the evening.” In the evening, Tricky arrived at Whitey’s house. Both of them talked for some time. Whitey also had prepared the soup and the aroma filled the place. Tricky’s mouth watered.Whitey went in and came with soup in two deep long jars. He placed the jars on the table. Tricky was shocked when he saw the jars. Tricky tried to drink from the jar but as soon as he bent, the jar got stuck in his mouth. He tried to remove the jar but the jar was stuck tightly on his mouth. He ran here and there and finally the jar broke.Tricky said, “Sorry, Whitey. Please forgive me. From now, I will not play any pranks and will be a good friend.” Moral:One should not try to make fun of the other’s limitations.

This is a story of crane, forest, fox and pond.Moral(s) of the story: carelessness and ignorance

The Fox and the Crane

Once upon a time, there lived a wizard who invented a very unusual spell. Anyone who was cast with this spell would have perfect, white, shiny teeth. The wizard had a lot of toads as his pets. He decided to test this spell on one of his toads. After the spell was cast, the toad was gifted with shiny white teeth. The toad loved his teeth so much that he would keep on smiling the whole day.The toad was able to speak and eat all kinds of food. He was very proud about his perfect teeth. “I prefer eating candy than filthy flies”, said the toad to the wizard. It came to wizard’s notice that the toad was not taking care of his teeth at all and was always eating different kinds of sweets. He said to the toad, “Brush your teeth regularly and don’t eat sweets otherwise you will get a toothache.”The toad did not pay heed to the wizard’s advice and kept on eating unhealthy food. One day, a tooth started decaying and the decay spread to all the other teeth. Soon, all the toad’s teeth fell out and he was back to eating flies his whole life. He lost his ability to talk and now regretted not listening to the wizard. Moral:Never take anything for granted. The toad thought that nothing could ever damage his teeth and so never cared for them. The more we take care of our health, the longer we live.

cosmos 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.