Ravina Sewani

One day, Mulla Nasiruddin was talking to his neighbour. The neighbour was looking so miserable that Nasiruddin asked him what was bothering him. The man started to complain about the lack of space in his house and said, “It is such a small house, Mulla. And me, my wife, my three children and my mother-in-law–all have to live together in the same little cottage. It is very cramped and there is hardly any space to move around.” He asked Nasiruddin for some advice on how to deal with this problem.Nasiruddin said, “Do you keep chickens in the yard?” “Yes, ten of them,” replied the man. “Good. Bring them inside the house and keep them there,” said Nasiruddin. “But, Mulla!” the man exclaimed. “My house is already overcrowded.” “Just do as I say,” Nasiruddin replied.The man was really very troubled and wanted to find a solution to his problem. He decided to give the Mulla’s advice a try. So the man went home and brought all the chickens into the house. Next day, he went to meet Nasiruddin again. He said, “Mulla, I followed your advice and took the chickens into the house. But it did not solve anything. In fact, it has made matters worse. My house is even more cramped now.“I see,” said Nasiruddin. ” Now take your donkey and keep it inside your house. The man did not think much of this idea but Nasiruddin managed to convince him to do it.The next day, the man came to Nasiruddin, looking very distressed, and said,”Now, it’s six humans , ten chickens and a donkey inside my house. It is so crowded that one can hardly move.” Nasiruddin replied, “You own a goat too, don’t you?” “Yes, I do,” said the man. “Great,” Nasiruddin said. “Take it inside the house too.” The man objected, “How is that going to solve anything?” but Nasiruddin once again convinced him to do as he had said.The next day, the man walked up to Nasiruddin in a state of anger and distress and said, “Your plan has made our lives miserable. The house is now so crowded that we are finding it difficult to even breathe. My family is upset and everyone is complaining about the lack of space.”“Don’t get so upset, friend,” said Nasiruddin. “Go back home and take all the animals back outside.” The man did as he was told.Next day, when the man came across Nasiruddin, he was beaming. He said, “I must thank you, Mulla! Your plan has worked wonders. Now that all the animals are outside, there is enough space in the house for all the family members. Everyone is happy and content with the house now.” Moral:Satisfaction is the key to a content life. Complaining about the situation leads to nowhere.

This is a story of house and Mulla Nasruddin.Moral(s) of the story: family value, satisfaction and smartness

The crowded home

Pallavi Hota

Mogu, a panda lived on the hills with his family. He was always a happy lad. His favourite festival was Christmas. Every year he eagerly waited for Santa to get him gifts. And his favourite time of the year was back.He went to the market and got every possible thing to decorate the house. This time, he got a huge Christmas tree out of excitement. With that, he bought a new pair of socks to write his Christmas wishes and put them inside the socks. He decorated the entire house and baked cakes. It was time now, so he went to sleep and waited for Santa to deliver his gifts. He woke up in the middle of the night and found no gift around him. He became really sad and went to his dad and sulked. His dad realised that he had forgotten to keep the gifts under his bed and felt upset. He asked Mogu to wait for a while and assured him that Santa had not forgotten but a little late in delivering the gifts. He then dressed up and appeared in front of Mogu singing, ìHo! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! and handed him all the gifts that he had wished for. To Moguís surprise his dad was Santa and delivered him gifts every year. He was happy and rejoiced knowing that his dad loved him so much.

This is a story of panda, Santa Claus and Christmas.Moral(s) of the story: happiness

Christmas Wish

Yesha Desai

Synopsis: This is a story where we realise that God lives, not in idols but in our hearts.Once upon a time there was a very talented sculptor who carved beautiful idols of gods and goddesses. He made all sorts of idols and people came from faraway lands to buy them.One of his clients, a merchant thought that he was not profiting in his business because he did not have a good idol.He asked the famous sculptor to make a giant, magnificent idol of multiple Gods and Goddesses. The merchant spent lots of money on the idols and celebrated when they were delivered safely.He worshipped all the idols regularly and celebrated every festival by spending lots of money on the events. Still he did not get the profit he wanted. He was disappointed and decided to purchase more idols.One day on his way home from work he saw a beggar who asked him for some money. The merchant was frustrated as his idol worship was not bearing him any fruits and gave the beggar some money, “There. Take the money. I am not benefitting, I hope you do.”The beggar is grateful and blesses the merchant. The merchant realises that he found more peace in the happy smile of the beggar than he did in a long time.From then he decides on doing more charity and his business prospers. He realises that God resides in good deeds and a good heart, not in blind idol worship. Moral:The belief of God should lie in our hearts and not in the idols.

This is a story of idol.Moral(s) of the story: faith

The giant idols

Once upon a time, there lived a king who ruled over a rich and prosperous kingdom. But, the king was never happy with what he had and was always on a mission to expand his empire by conquering other kingdoms. One day, he set out on a mission to conquer a distant country. The king and his soldiers walked the entire morning in the forest. By evening, all of them were exhausted and thus halted near a lake to take some rest. The horses were also tired, so the soldiers fed them some peas. A monkey living in the forest was eyeing the delicious peas being fed to the horses. He jumped down from the tree, grabbed a handful of peas and scampered back to the tree. As he sat down comfortably on a branch and started to eat the peas, one small pea slipped from his hand and fell on the ground. Without thinking even once, the greedy monkey dropped all the peas he had in his hands, and ran down to look for the lost pea. Unfortunately, the monkey could not find that pea. He kept looking for the pea for some more time and then climbed back the tree empty handed. His greed had made him lose all that he had.The king was watching the monkey with great interest. Wisdom dawned on him and he realised that his want for more may leave him with nothing one day. He said to himself, “I will not be like this foolish monkey, who lost much to gain a little. I will go back to my own country and enjoy what I have.” So, the next day he ordered his men to march back home. Moral:We should try to be happy with whatever we have and not be greedy and foolish.

This is a classic story from Jataka tales.This is a story of Monkey.Moral(s) of the story: greediness

The penny wise monkey

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.” The Pandavas were superior to the Kauravas in every respect, both in strength and intelligence. They were greatly appreciated for their innate noble qualities. Bhishma advised Dhritarashtra to declare Yudhishthira as the crown prince of Hastinapur since he was the eldest and was endowed with all the qualities necessary in a king. Duryodhana’s jealousy of the Pandavas increased after learning that Yudhishthira would be declared the crown prince. Out of anger, Duryodhana hatched a plan to kill the Pandavas so that he could ascend the Hastinapur throne. One day Duryodhana approached his father, Dhritarashtra, and requested him to send the Pandavas to the annual Pashupati fair in Varnavat, a place far away from Hastinapur. Ignorant of any foul play, Dhritarashtra asked the Pandavas to attend the fair. Duryodhana, on the other hand, secretly ordered his trusted aide and architect Purochana, to make a special palace, with highly inflammable materials, specially for the Pandavas (Lakshagriha – house of lacquer). His wicked plan was to burn the Pandavas alive while sleeping. The Lakshagriha was to be burnt on an Amavasya night. When that night finally reached Purochana, not knowing that the Pandavas were simply sleeping assumed them to be dead. To celebrate this Purochana began drinking and within hours was drunk. Utilizing this opportunity the Pandavas set fire to the palace and escaped through the tunnel that Vidura helped them build for emergency purposes.

This is a story of Dritarashtra and Pandavas.

Escape from Lakshagriha

Four friends lived in a village. Three of them were very learned, but they were absolutely without common sense. The fourth one was not much learned, but he possessed sound common sense.One day, the four friends set out for the capital of the King to make their fortune. There was a jungle on their way. As they were passing through the jungle, they saw a heap of bones under a tree.One of the learned friends observed the bones and said, 'These are the bones of a lion. With the help of my learning, I can put these bones together and make a skeleton of the dead animal."Another learned man said, "With the help of my learning, I can stuff the skeleton with flesh and blood and cover it with the skin." The third learned man said, "With the power of my learning, I can put life into the lifeless body of the animal."The wise man who possessed sound common sense warned his learned friends against the danger of bringing the lion back to life.One of the learned men said, “This idiot is jealous of our learning. Let us not listen to him.” The other two agreed with him. So the wise man ran off as fast as his legs could carry him.The three learned men got busy in making the use of their learning. The first one put the bones together and made a skeleton. The second one stuffed the skeleton with flesh and blood and covered it with the skin.The third one put life into the lifeless body of the lion. As soon as the lion came back to life, he roared loudly and killed the three learned men.The fourth friend's common sense helped him to save himself. Moral:Wrong use of learning can be disastrous.

This is a classic story from Vikas books.This is a story of lion.Moral(s) of the story: foolishness

The four friends

Everyone knew that Stuti was the best speller in the whole class. She could spell difficult words like "encyclopedia" and "amendment" very easily. She used to get perfect scores during each weekly spelling test.Ms. Daisy, her English teacher made a rule for the spelling tests that any child who doesn't get at least 60% correct spellings would have to copy each word fifty times for next week's spelling test. Seema, who sat next to Stuti always struggled in spellings. Last Thursday, she received 56 percent which meant copying each word fifty times.Stuti was so confident in her spelling abilities that she had felt and decided not to study for her next spelling test. The test began. Ms. Daisy pronounced each word and then repeated it. Everything was OK until she spoke "Handkerchief". Stuti scribbled h-a-n-d-k-e-r-c-h.....now what?? i??...or…e?? Her mind was blank.Ms. Daisy started to move on to the next word. It occurred to Stuti that Seema knew how to spell it!! Seema had written this word fifty times.&nbsp;There was wide open space between Stuti and Seema. Stuti's eyes rolled to the right. There it was, spelled out in Seema's handwriting. Her eyes went quickly back to her own paper and finished the word with the letters "i-e-f".Stuti remained tense and nervous as Ms. Daisy read the last spelling word. She had cheated just for the first time in her life. She thought, "Is this the way I want to keep my perfect record - by being a cheater?"Frantically, she erased what she had written earlier and replaced it with what she knew was the wrong answer. She wrote "e-i-f". As her sweaty hands released pencil and passed the test up to the front, she sighed with relief. She thought, "So, what if my perfect scores are no longer intact? At least my honesty is."Moral: Honesty is the best policy. Stuti could have cheated and scored good but that guilt would then always have stayed with her.

This is a story of girl.Moral(s) of the story: cheating and honesty

Stuti in an Exam

Once, Emperor Akbar was looking for a suitable candidate for the post of his royal advisor. Several courtiers coveted the prestigious post and requested the Emperor to give them a chance. The number of the contenders for the post was increasing day by day and thus, the Emperor decided to test them for their intellectual abilities and wit. He announced, “I want all those who wish to be my royal advisor to appear for a test. The one who would pass the test will be appointed my advisor.” They agreed.Akbar unfastened his waist cloth and lay down on the floor, and asked the candidates to cover him with that cloth from head to toe. All the courtiers were perplexed by the Emperor’s strange test. They tried their best to cover the Emperor’s body with the waist cloth, but since it was very small in size, it could not cover the whole body. When the courtiers covered the Emperor’s head, his feet remained uncovered, and when they tried to cover his feet, then his head remained open.Just then Birbal entered the court, the king asked Birbal also to try to cover him with that cloth from head to toe. Birbal took a moment, and then asked the Emperor politely, “Huzoor, Could you pull up your knees a little bit?” The Emperor curled his legs up, and Birbal easily covered him from head to toe with that cloth.All the courtiers realized that they were not worth the appointment of the royal advisor and withdrew their claims.

This is a classic story from Akbar Birbal.

Birbal solves the problem

Once upon a time, an old man lived with his three sons in a village. The three sons were hard workers. Still, they quarreled all the time. The old man tried a lot to unite them but he failed. Though the villagers appreciated their hard work and efforts, they made fun of them on their fights.Months passed by and the old man fell sick. He told his sons to stay united, but they didn’t listen to him. So, he decided to teach them a practical lesson so that they would forget their differences and stay united.The old man called his sons. He told them, “I will give you a bundle of sticks. Separate each stick and you will have to break each stick into two. The one who breaks the sticks quickly will be rewarded more.”The sons agreed. The old man gave a bundle of 10 sticks to each of them and asked them to break each stick into pieces. They broke the sticks into pieces in minutes. And again they started to quarrel among themselves as to who came first.The old man said, “Dear sons, the game is not over. Now I will give another bundle of sticks to each of you. You will have to break the sticks as a bundle, not as separate sticks.” The sons agreed and tried to break the bundle of sticks. Though they tried their best, they could not break the bundle. They failed to complete the task. The three sons reported their failure to their father.Breaking bundle of sticks, the old man replied, “Dear sons, See! You could easily break the single sticks into pieces, but you were not able to break the bundle! So, if you stay united, nobody can do any harm to you. If you quarrel every time with your brothers, anyone can easily defeat you. I request you to stay united.”The three sons understood the power of unity and promised their father that whatever be the situation, they would all stay together. Moral:Unity is Strength!

This is a story of father and son.Moral(s) of the story: family value, trust and unity

india cities 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.