Ravina Sewani

A long time ago, there was a king who reigned over a large empire. The king was very noble and kind but his son was rude, ill-mannered and bad-tempered. The king tried all kinds of ways to reform his son. The ministers, courtiers and other important and learned people of the kingdom also tried to make the prince change his ways but to no avail. They tried to make the prince realize that his bad behaviour could create a bad impression on the public, but the prince was never willing to listen to any well-meant advice. One day, while the king was taking a walk in his palace garden, he saw a sage pass by. There was a radiant glow on the sage’s face and a confidence in his gait that made the king infer that the sage must be a very learned person full of divine knowledge. The king sent a messenger to invite the sage to his palace. The sage accepted the invitation and was welcomed warmly by the king. When the king found out that the sage was looking for a place to live in, he offered to make a hermitage in the palace for the sage. The sage accepted the king’s offer and started residing in the hermitage in the palace.One day, while the king was talking to the sage, he said, “Dear Sir, it must have come to your knowledge by now that I have a son on whose account I am constantly worried. He is very ill-mannered and bad-tempered. The public of my kingdom considers him unworthy of being a prince. I’m afraid they won’t accept him as their king after me. Please help me, Sir. You are wise; you can teach my son to mend his ways.” The sage assured the king that he would do something to set things right.Next day, the sage asked the prince to come for a walk with him in the palace garden. There, he pointed towards a little plant and said, “Eat a leaf of this plant and tell me how the taste is.” The prince plucked a leaf of the plant and put it in his mouth. As soon as he tasted it, he spat it out on the ground in disgust. “It’s bitter! It must be some poisonous seedling. It could prove to be dangerous to the health of many people if it grows. So, it should not be allowed to grow into a big tree.” Saying this, the prince pulled the plant out of the ground and tore it up.The sage picked up the plant that the prince had destroyed and said, “The way that you reacted towards this plant today, one day the people of your kingdom may react towards you in the same way. They think that you are a wicked prince, so they may not allow you to become their king and may exile you. It is for your own good that you must mend your ways and try to develop a sense of sympathy, compassion and kind-heartedness towards all your fellow beings.”The prince learnt his lesson. He understood the message that the sage was trying to convey through the example of the plant. From that day forth, the prince tried to change his rude and ill-mannered behaviour and became humble and kind. The king was very pleased to see a change in his son and expressed his gratitude to the sage. Moral:All beings deserve respect, empathy, and compassion.

This is a classic story from panchtantra.This is a story of king and prince.Moral(s) of the story: compassion, empathy and respect

The prince and the seedling

Yesha Desai

Once upon a time there lived a king who had three sons. The first one was known as the Prince of Stars, the second was known as the Moon Prince and the third was called the Sun Prince. The king had his first two sons from his first wife, and the third one from his second wife. When the third prince was born, the king had promised the second queen to give her any boon she might ask.The queen remembered this and waited for an opportune moment, to put forward her demands. When the third son grew up, she asked the king to grant her the promised boon. She wanted the king to give the reins of the kingdom to the youngest prince. The king refused to do so, saying, “Dear, the kingdom must go to the eldest prince, and never to the youngest. Please ask me for something else.” The queen was infuriated and accused the king of not being a man of his word.The way the second queen was fuming with anger, got the king worried. He thought the queen may try to harm the elder princes, in order to make the youngest prince the king. So, he called his elder sons and told them to go away and live in the forest. He instructed them to come back to the city and start ruling it. With a heavy heart, he bid adieu to his beloved sons and sent them away.The youngest prince happened to see them walking out of the palace. On hearing where they were going, he also decided to leave the palace and go with them. The three of them thus set out towards the forest. When they reached in the middle of the forest, they sat down to take rest near a pond. The elder princes asked the youngest prince to fetch some water for them from the pond.That pond belonged to a water sprite, who had the power in him to enslave every human being that came to drink water from the pond and failed to give the correct answers of his questions. When the Sun prince went to take water from the pond, the water sprite appeared before him and said, “O Prince, you can only have water from my pond if you answer my question correctly.” The Sun Prince said, “Sure, I will try my best to answer your question.” The water sprite then asked the prince, “What are the good fairies like?” The Sun Prince replied, “They are like the sun and the moon.” The water sprite did not quite like his answer and shouted, “No, this is not true! Now, you will have to come with me and be my slave.” Saying so, he took the prince into his cave under the water.” When the Sun Prince did not come back for a long time, the eldest prince sent the Moon Prince to go and look for him. When he reached near the pond, the water sprite appeared before him and asked him the same question, “What are good fairies like?”The Moon Prince answered, “Well, they are like the sky above us.”The water sprite said, “No, that is the wrong answer!” And saying so, he took the Moon Prince also to his cave.Then at last, the eldest prince decided to go and look for his brothers. When he reached the pond, he saw the water sprite there. He understood that the water sprite must have taken his brothers into his custody.The prince called out to the water sprite and said, “O Water Sprite, have you taken my brothers with you?”The water sprite replied, “Oh yes, I had to take them in my custody because they failed to answer my question. I own this pond and allow only those to take water from my pond who answer my question correctly. Those who don’t, have to come with me and become my slaves.”The Star Prince said, “I will answer your questions. And if my answer is correct, promise me that you will release my brothers.”The water sprite said, “We shall see! My question to you is that, what are the good fairies like?”The Star Prince replied, “They are pure in heart, who fear to sin. They are good and kindly in word and deed.”The water sprite was pleased with the prince’s answer, “You are indeed very wise! But, I will return only one of your brothers. Tell me whom should I bring back?”The Star Prince replied, “Give me the youngest brother back. Though, he is my step brother, I love him as dearly as my real brother. If I ask for my own brother back, it would be unjust to the second queen. One of the first queen’s sons, that is me, is alive and so, it should be the second queen’s son whose life should be spared. Apart from that, if I return to the kingdom without the youngest brother, people will think that I have killed my step brother. No one will believe that a water sprite is holding him as a prisoner.”The water sprite was so pleased with the prince’s answer that he released both the princes from captivity. Moral:Our wisdom can get us out of tricky situations with minimal causality.

This is a classic story from Jataka tales.This is a story of king, prince and queen.Moral(s) of the story: wisdom

The Princess and the Water Sprite

Shina Utavani

Once, there lived a farmer in land far away. He was very poor. He lived with his wife. One day they both were very hungry. They did not have anything to eat. Their neighbour had a beautiful garden. The farmer decided to pluck fruits from the garden. As soon as he plucked an apple, a voice came from behind. It was from his neighbour. His neighbour was an old witch. She screamed, “How dare you take fruits from my garden. I will turn you both into rats.” The couple was very scared. They requested her to forgive them and assured her they will never pluck any fruit from her garden. The witch said, “Okay, I will forgive you only if you will give me your first child.” The couple was very scared so they agreed immediately.The couple was blessed with a beautiful baby girl after a few years. When the old witch came to know about the baby, she immediately came and snatched the baby away from them. The witch named her Rapunzel. She did not want her parents to take her away, so she locked her up in a tall tower. The Rapunzel looked pretty when she grew up. She was very beautiful. The most beautiful thing about her was her hair. She had long, golden hair.Rapunzel was locked up in a tower since birth so, the only person she saw in her life was the old witch. The old witch use to come to meet her every day. The witch used to climb the tall tower with the help of Rapunzel’s hair. The witch used to tell Rapunzel to let down her hair from the window and she used to climb the tower with that.A prince was passing by the tower one day and saw the witch climbing the tower with the hair. The prince was surprised and he too wanted to try. When the old witch left the place, the prince went below the tower. He then shouted, “Rapunzel, let your hair down.” Rapunzel heard the noise and threw her hair from the window. The prince climbed the tower and reached to her room. Rapunzel was shocked to see the prince. The prince was very handsome and she had never seen someone like that before. Prince was also stunned to see Rapunzel. They both fell in love instantly. After that, every day they began to meet secretly.However, one day when the witch was climbing the tower, Rapunzel mistakenly said, “You are so much heavier than my prince.” The witch understood what was happening and she got angry on Rapunzel. She screamed and cut off her long hair. She sent Rapunzel into a forest. And that day when the prince came to the tower, the witch cursed the prince and he became blind. The prince then went to find Rapunzel in the forest with no eyesight.After many days, Rapunzel found the prince in the forest among the trees. The prince had many injuries. Rapunzel cried when she came to know that the prince had lost his eyesight. As Rapunzel was crying, her tears fell on the prince. Due to her tears, the wounds of the prince started healing. The eyesight of the prince came back. The prince opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was Rapunzel. They both were really happy to see each other. They both hugged each other and decided to go to the prince’s kingdom. They went far away from the wicked witch to the prince’s kingdom and lived happily ever after. Moral:The value of patience and determination. It also teaches the consequences of stealing.

This is a story of hair, kingdom, prince, rapunzel and witch.Moral(s) of the story: bravery and strength

Rapunzel

Once, a beautiful girl named Cinderella used to live with her evil stepmother and two stepsisters. Her stepmother was very rude to her. She did not like Cinderella and would tell her to do every household work. The mother did not use to give any work to Cinderella’s stepsisters. Cinderella used to do every work and her stepsisters used to roam around in their expensive dresses.A letter came to their house one day which said that the king had arranged a ball in which his son, ‘The Prince’ will choose a girl as his wife, every girl in the kingdom must be aware of it. After reading the letter, everyone was excited to attend the ball. Cinderella was also excited and wanted to go to the ball. She asked for permission from her stepmother. To which her mother replied, “You can go only if you complete all the household work on time and would help your sisters to choose their dresses for the ball.” Cinderella got excited and worked as fast as she could. Unfortunately, she could not complete all the household work and stayed at home disappointed.She felt very bad and ran to the garden. She sighed, “Wishes are never fulfilled.” A voice came behind saying, “Never my dear”. Cinderella looked up and saw a little woman. The woman had a magic wand in her hand. She had a big smile on her face. The little woman was Cinderella’s fairy godmother.The Fairy wanted to help Cinderella to reach the ball. The fairy waved her wand. With that Cinderella was dressed like a princess. The fairy gave her a new dress, glass sandals, and a black horse to reach the ball. Cinderella was shocked to see this. The fairy then said that the magic will last till midnight. She told her to come back before that.With the pretty dress and black horse, Cinderella reached the palace. Everyone was shocked to see Cinderella. She looked the prettiest in the ball. She looked beautiful and different than usual. Her stepsisters were stunned and could not recognize her. When the prince saw Cinderella, he fell in love with her instantly. The prince danced with her all night. Everyone was jealous of her. The Cinderella was busy in the ball that she almost forgot what fairy had told her. While dancing when she saw the time and realized the fairy’s words, she quickly left the palace and, in all hurry, she forgot one of the glass sandals at the palace.The prince was impressed by Cinderella’s beauty and fell in love. He wanted to marry her and was curious to know where she came from. He ordered his servants to find the girl. He told them to go to every house and find the girl whose foot matched the glass sandals. The two stepsisters tried their best to insert their feet into the sandals but failed. But when Cinderella tried the sandal, her feet completely fit into it. Prince recognized Cinderella and asked to marry him. They finally got married and lived a happy life. Moral:Have courage and believe in yourself even in times of adversity.

This is a story of cinderella, prince and sandal.Moral(s) of the story: confidence and courage

Cinderella

Once upon a time, there was a palace at the bottom of the sea. In the palace, there lived the Sea King. The king had six mermaid daughters. Out of the six daughters, five of them were very happy. The sixth one, the youngest was very sad and depressed. She would not even smile.Little mermaid loved the surface world. She liked the world above the sea. She would often swim up to see the sky and green trees of the distant land. She liked the world above the sea. She was sad because she was living in the sea and she wanted to experience the world above the sea. The fish, shells, stones of the sea failed to satisfy her. She did not even like to hear stories from her father.The little mermaid wanted to explore the world above the sea. She secretly left her home and came to the surface. When she left, it was a stormy night and the waves crashed wildly against the rocks. There was lightning in the sky and it had hit a ship and the ship rolled in the sea. The man who was inside the ship fell in the sea and was drowning. He was asking for help. The little mermaid immediately rescued him and took him to the shore. She gently rested him against the rocks. Looking at the young man, little mermaid fell in love with him. Suddenly a girl came towards them. Seeing her, little mermaid left for the sea palace.The girl came near the young man and he opened his eyes. He thought that she had rescued him. The girl was beautiful and charming. The young man thanked her thinking she had saved him. The beautiful girl was also a princess.Back in the sea palace, the little mermaid always thought about the young prince. She once visited the witches of the Seashore and asked for a wish. The little mermaid wanted to walk and dance on the land. The witch agreed to grant her wish on one condition. She will be able to walk and dance but not talk and sing. She will not get the power of speech. The mermaid was excited to go on the land and agreed. She was soon transformed.The mermaid reached the royal palace hoping that the prince would remember her. The palace was having a grand party that night. The palace guards did not allow her to enter the palace but when they saw her dance, they allowed her to go inside the palace. The mermaid entered the palace and her eyes were searching for the prince. She saw the prince sitting on the throne. She was happy to see the prince and wished the prince would remember her. But the mermaid saw the beautiful girl with lovely hair sitting beside the prince. When the prince saw the mermaid, he did not recognize her. The little mermaid wanted to tell the prince but she had lost her power of speech.The King announced the princess sitting next to the prince as the future bride of the kingdom. The mermaid after hearing this was in tears. She was heartbroken and sad.It is believed that the sad mermaid still visits the place where she first saw the prince.

This is a story of land, mermaid, palace, prince, princess and sea.

The Little Mermaid

Once upon a time, the King's two Princes were playing in a forest, and - meeting one at a time -, they came across four dwarves who asked them to be more careful. The first dwarf had a headache and he asked them not to shout. The second dwarf was painting a landscape, and he asked the children to move away because they were blocking out the light. The third dwarf was doing a giant jigsaw puzzle in the middle of the road, and he asked the children not to tread on it. The fourth dwarf was watching a butterfly and he asked them not to frighten it away.The Prince who respected others did as the dwarves asked, but the disrespectful Prince ignored the dwarves´ pleas, and kept bothering them. In the evening, both boys had become separated and lost. They needed to get back to the palace quickly.Each of them separately came across the four dwarves again, and asked for their help. They refused to help the disrespectful Prince, but with the respectful Prince they did whatever they could to help, and took him along some secret tracks which led right to the palace.The other Prince arrived much later, and was punished for it. He now understood that it's much better to respect everyone if you want to have friends. Moral:Respect everyone regardless of age, authority, caste and creed.

This is a story of dwarf and prince.Moral(s) of the story: helpfulness and respect

A respectful prince and dwarves

Once upon a time there was a little prince who was used to having everything he wanted. He was so spoiled that he wouldn’t let anybody have a new toy if he didn’t have it first. So, if any child in the land wanted a new toy, they had to buy two and give one to the prince.One day a mysterious toy maker, who invented the most wonderful toys, came to the land. The prince liked his toys so much that he invited him to spend an entire year in the castle, promising him great wealth if he made him a new toy every day. The toy maker set just one condition:“My toys are very special and need an owner who will play with them” he said. “Will you be able to devote a little time to each one every day?”“Of course, I will” the little prince replied impatiently. “I’d love to.”From then on, every morning the prince received a new toy. Every day it seemed that there could never be a better toy and every day the toy maker delivered a toy better than the previous ones. The prince appeared very happy.But the toy collection kept growing and, after a few weeks had passed, there were simply too many toys to play with all of them every day. So, one day the prince put a few toys to one side, hoping that the toy maker wouldn’t notice. However, when it was night time and the prince was ready to go to bed the toys that had been put away lined up in front of him and, one by one, demanded their daily playtime. The little prince couldn’t get to sleep until well past midnight because he had to play with every single toy.Next day, tired after all his efforts, the prince slept very late. In the little time left of the day, he had to get to know a new toy and then play with all the others too. Once again, he finished very late and was so tired he could hardly stop yawning.From then on, every day was a little bit worse than the one before. The same amount of time but with one extra toy to play with. The prince was so exhausted and sleepy, he barely had the time to enjoy playing. To make matters worse, the toys were getting more and more angry because the time he spent playing with them was becoming shorter and shorter.Within a few weeks later, he only had time to go from one toy to another, eating as he played, talking as he played, bathing as he played and even sleeping as he played. He was constantly changing toys, just like a terrible nightmare. Until one day, as he was looking out of his window, he saw some children playing with a stone next to the castle.“Hmmmm, I have an idea!” he said, and he sent for the children. They turned up gloomily, wondering whether he would force them to hand over their stone, just as he had done many times before with other toys. But the prince didn’t want the stone. Surprisingly, he only wanted them to play with him and share his toys. When they’d finished playing the prince let them take home the toys they liked the most.The idea had worked. The prince could enjoy himself without having too many toys to play with. Even better, he had new friends. From then on, he did the same thing every day and invited more children to the castle to share his toys. When it was time for the toy maker to leave, the 365 fantastic toys he had made had all been shared out and the palace had turned into the best playroom in the kingdom. Morals:The joy of everything is in sharing and togetherness.

This is a story of prince.Moral(s) of the story: sharing

The prince and the toy maker

One upon a time, there were two beautiful princesses. They both were kidnapped by a vicious king when they were young. The princesses were taken to a lake where they were abandoned on a small island. The princesses had to live there forever under the guidance of a terrifying lake monster.After some time, the wicked king and his court of wizards and fortune-tellers were overthrown. And everybody knew that a brave prince was destined to release the princesses from their imprisonment.When princesses came to know about the news, their lives were finally filled with hope. Out of the two princesses, the youngest one was more beautiful and pretty than the elder one. She had a hope that one day prince will come to rescue her. So, she patiently waited for him, making small decorations from the flowers and singing songs. However, the older princess did not enjoy having to wait. She thought that she had to do something to help the prince rescue her. She thought that the prince should at least know where she was.The elder princess started working to help the prince. She started making signals, building towers, digging tunnels and a thousand other things. However, the lake monster always tried his best to ruin her plans.As time passed, the elder sister felt insecure and uncomfortable. She knew that the prince would choose her younger sister because she was more beautiful. So, she thought there was no point in waiting for the prince instead she started making plans to escape from the island not worrying about the prince.Every morning she would prepare a different escape plan, but the monster would always do something to ruin her plan. She attempted every day to plan an escape but the monster used to ruin it every time. It became like a game of cat and mouse between the princess and the monster. The princess tried to plan a new escape every day which used to be more original and creative. And the monster used a different creative way to destroy those plans. They put so much effort and imagination in their plans that at the end of each day the princess and the monster would spend hours chatting like friends. They used to discuss how they had planned their strategy. At night they both would say Goodbye and the monster would go back to the watery depths.One day the monster said to the princess that he will allow her to go the next day. He said that she was a clever and brave girl. She did not deserve to remain imprisoned like that. But the next morning the princess did not try to escape. She sat beside the lake, waiting for the monster to appear. When the monster came, he asked, “Why have not you gone?” The princess replied, “I did not want to leave you alone. You are indeed scary, but you are clever too. You deserve something better than guarding the princesses. Why don’t you come with me?” The monster sadly replied, “I cannot. I can’t leave the island; I’m attached to it by a long chain. You will have to leave on your own.”The princess went to the monster and hugged him tightly. She hugged him so tightly that the monster broke into a thousand pieces. And from those pieces appeared a slim, smiling young man, with the same expression and intelligence as he had as the lake monster.So, it was the Prince that had been with them all along. The princesses did not know that for the prince to rescue them, first, they would have to rescue him. This was only possible because of the spirit and the positive attitude of the older sister.The prince at the end decided to marry the older princess, leaving the younger princess to her songs, beauty, and her sweetness. Moral:You don’t achieve things by waiting for them to happen; instead you must work hard to achieve them. The story teaches us the importance of taking initiative with a positive attitude to achieve what we want.

This is a story of lake, monster, prince and princess.Moral(s) of the story: hard work, smartness

The Lake Princesses 

Once, there lived a King and Queen in a beautiful, huge kingdom. The king and queen had a beautiful daughter named Snow White. She was very pretty and had gorgeous black hair and fair skin. The princess became more beautiful as she grew up. She was very kind and generous. But as she grew up, her mother died. Snow White was very depressed after her mother died.The king married a new queen and she turned out to be an evil witch. She had a magic mirror. One day she asked the mirror to tell her who was the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. The mirror replied, “Snow White.” The queen could not hear this and decided to kill her. She directed a soldier to take Snow White away from the Kingdom and kill her.The soldier took Snow White to the forest to kill her, as directed by the queen. Snow White was very kind and generous. She had shown her generosity to everyone. The soldier was also aware of her kind nature. So, the soldier could not kill her. He advised the princess to run away and never come back because the queen wanted to kill her.The princess was shocked by hearing this. She ran as fast as she could through the forest. After a while, she was tired. She decided to take some rest. She saw a tiny house and decided to go inside. When she entered the house, she saw that everything was very small. But as she was very tired, she decided to take some rest. She laid down on the little bed and fell asleep.The princess was sleeping on the bed and after some time seven dwarves entered the tiny house. As they entered the house, they saw Snow-white on the bed and were surprised. The dwarfs said, “Why is a girl sleeping on our bed? What is she doing here?” The voice woke up the princess. She told everything to the dwarves. She told them about the witch queen. The dwarves allowed the princess to stay in their house. The princess soon became friends with the dwarves. She cooked food for them and they lived happily.The witch queen soon found out that the princess was still alive. She turned herself into an old lady and entered the house. The witch knocked on the door. Snow White opened the door and saw an old lady. The old lady gave her a delicious apple and asked her to taste it. Snow White took the bite of the apple. The apple was poisonedand as soon as she took a bite, she fell on the ground and never woke up. The little dwarves were very sad and decided to put her on the flower bed.One day, a prince saw Snow-White lying on a flower bed. He was awe-struck by her beauty and fell in love with her. He took her hand and kissed it. The moment, the prince kissed her, she woke up. The kiss had the power to break the witch’s magic.As soon as she woke up, she saw the prince. She was pleased to see the charming prince. She fell in love with him. The prince and Snow White then lived a happy life. The witch became mad and in anger, she broke her mirror and never heard the mirror talk again. Moral:Selfish desire is dangerous. Do not trust strangers.

This is a story of dwarf, prince, snow white and witch.Moral(s) of the story: selfishness

prince stories

Stories help in improving a child's imagination. Here are a few interesting ones for you to narrate to your child.