Yesha Desai

Ollie is a five year old girl who lives by the sea in a small fishing village. She loves the ocean with her whole heart and she loves the animals in it, even more.Everyday she would go fishing with her father and meet new fish. The dolphins adored her, the sharks and whales loved her and the octopuses always wanted to hug her.In short, everybody loved it when Ollie came to meet them and Ollie was just as happy to do the same.However, after some time she noticed that not enough animals came to meet her. The seahorses rarely showed up with their children, the whales were very few in numbers, the sharks would not be as friendly. Gradually, the fish showed up in such little numbers that even her father was worried.Ollie thought that they did not visit her because she did something wrong. One day she sat in a small cove and frowned, wondering what went wrong.That was when a turtle washed up to the shore. By the faint whining, Ollie immediately knew that the animal was in pain. She ran to the turtle and found that he was covered in trash, he was trapped.She immediately took the plastic from his face, untangled whatever was stuck to his legs and helped him breathe. Finally, when the turtle was safe, she breathed a sigh of relief. The turtle thanked her and smiled at her but it was a sad smile.She slowly asked the turtle what happened and he sighed, “The ocean is not safe for us anymore, especially not near the shore. There is human waste everywhere.” “Is that why you all don’t come to visit me anymore?” asked Ollie worried.The turtle nodded, “We can barely swim near the shore. There is plastic and plastic. The pollution kills us. I would have died today if it were not for your help.”Ollie had tears in her eyes thinking about the ocean’s residents’ misery and so she promised the turtle, “I will fix it. Or at least I will try. I miss you all, my friends and you deserve to be safe in your own home.”The turtle smiled sadly again before Ollie released him into the sea, “Thank you Ollie. We will surely visit you when it is safe for us. We miss you too.” Ollie waved him away and hoped that he stayed safe. Moral:Marine pollution makes it very hard for the inhabitants of the ocean to live. We must keep the ocean clean.

This is a story of ocean, sea and turtle.

The sad turtle

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.” Pandu regularly recalled the rushi’s curse and felt distressed. He was cursed that he would die if he developed any intimate relations. and Kunti painfully noticed it. It was then, that she decided to reveal a secret that she had kept close to her heart. Kunti said, “When I was young, Sage Durvasa came to my father’s house. I served the sage devotionally and as a result, the sage blessed me with a mantra through which I could invoke any god I desire to beget a son. The mantra, however, can be used only five times.” She was blessed with three sons. Pandu requested Kunti to pass on the mantra to Madri, the second wife of Pandu; so that she can also have a child. Thus, with the boon received by Kunti, Pandu was blessed with five sons, Yudhishthir, Bheem, Arjun, Nakul and Sahadev. These five worthy children of Pandu were called Pandavas. Meanwhile, Sage Vyas visited Dhritarashtra and Gandhari, who took pains to ensure that the sage would have a comfortable time in the palace. Pleased with the reception he received, Sage Vyas decided to confer a boon on Gandhari. The queen asked for 100 sons who would be as powerful as her husband. The Sage granted the boon and left.All the cousins, the Pandavas and the Kauravas grew up together under the watchful eye of their grandfather Bhishma. They learned the art of warfare under the able tutelage of Kripacharya, a renowned guru.

This is a story of Pandavas and Kauravas

Birth of Pandavas and Kauravas

Ann was as busy as school children could get. She was always caught in with schoolwork and extracurricular activities.When she was done with her homework she had art classes, once that was done, she went out to play, then dinner, then studying for exams and so and so..All in all, she always felt like she did not have enough time.One day in particular, she was buried in schoolwork and complained, “Why is there not enough time for me to do my work? Is there any way I can increase the length of the day?”A fairy appeared and Ann squeaked in horror.The fairy only smiled and waited for Ann to calm down. Once she was alright, Ann poked at the fairy. “Are you real?”The fairy laughed and replied, “Yes. I am here to answer your question.”Ann’s eyes lit up. “So is there a way for me to have more time?”“Yes.”Ann clapped her hands. “Really? Tell me how.”The fairy replied, “You can have a longer day if you wake up early. The time you waste in the morning by being lazy can be utilized in so much more.”Ann understood what the fairy meant and nodded her head. Moral:Waking up early in the morning helps you have more time to do your work and you won’t have to do everything in a haste.

This is a story of fairy, magic and morning person.Moral(s) of the story: routine importance

How do I increase the length of my day?

Shina Utavani

The Forest God one day created an animal and named him Snowball. The animal was very beautiful. He was round and had beautiful white fur. All the other animals liked and adored him.The snowball looked very nice but by nature, he was very mean and nasty. He was very rude and mean to other animals. One day, he was roaming in the forest. While roaming, he met Piggy. After seeing Piggy, Snowball said, “Your nose is so funny! It looks like your nose is looking at the sky” and started laughing. Piggy felt very bad and he started crying.The snowball went further on his way. He met squirrel on his way. The squirrel was happy to see the snowball and said, “Snowball, come play with me.” Snowball replied, “I will never play with you, you are very small.” The squirrel became very sad. Further snowball met the deer and said, “You have sticks on your head, it looks very strange.” The deer too got upset.Snowball went ahead and he was humming a song. On his way, he saw a hen. The hen said, “Hey Snowball, Let’s be friends.” The snowball started laughing and said, “No ways, look at your ugly red hat.” The hen was very embarrassed and felt very bad. Snowball kept saying mean things to everyone in the forest. No one in the forest liked him anymore. Everyone started hating him.All other animals of the forest had a meeting and decided to ignore Snowball. One of the animals said, “He is so mean! Why he is so beautiful? It is not fair.” The other one said, “He is very rude, I am not going to be his friend.”The Forest God saw everything and called Snowball. He said, “Snowball, stop being mean to others, otherwise your fur will fall out.” The snowball did not listen to the Forest God and kept teasing everyone. Soon, his fur started falling out. He was left with no fur. He cried and went to the Forest God and said, “I will not tease anyone. Please give me my fur back.”The Forest God appeared after seeing him cry. The god said, “Go to the forest, make new friends. Only then your fur would grow. If you fail to make new friends, your body will grow.” Snowball immediately went to the forest. He first went to piggy but the piggy ignored him. So, the body of snowball grew.On his way he saw the squirrel, he tried talking to her but she too ignored him. Snowball’s body grew longer. Snowball saw the rabbit and the bear but they too ignored him. So, his body grew longer and longer. The snowball cried and said, “No one will become my friend.”Snowball’s fur did not grow at all. Snowball’s body grew so long that his legs disappeared. The other animals laughed at snowball now. They used to tell him, “You have no fur. You look so ugly.” Snowball felt very bad and was ashamed of himself. He hid inside the cave and was all alone.“I was so mean,” he cried. The snowball realized his mistake but it was too late. Slowly time passed and snowball forgot about his beauty. He slid across the cold ground. All the animals forgot about the snowball. He had a new name now. He is called snake since then. Moral:Never be rude to others. Do not make fun of others.

This is a story of forest, snake and snowball.Moral(s) of the story: mean

The snowball and his forest friends

Ravina Sewani

Once, a prince went on a hunting spree in a dense forest. He wandered the whole day in search of prey but did not come across a single animal, big or small that he could kill. By the evening he got very tired and thus, sat under a tree to take some rest. Just then, he saw a huge tiger coming out of the bushes and moving forward towards him. The prince was petrified and in order to save his life, he climbed up the nearest tree. When he reached the top of the tree, he saw a huge bear sitting on one of the branches. He started to tremble with fear as he thought that he would now surely be killed by either of the two wild animals. The bear calmed down the prince and said, “Don’t worry, my dear prince. This tree is my house and thus, you are my guest. I never harm my guests.” The prince believed in what the bear said and stopped panicking. The tiger also sat down under the tree and kept waiting for the prince to come down. Soon the sun set and there was darkness everywhere. The prince was terribly tired and, he fell fast asleep on the branch. When the tiger saw the sleeping prince, he said to the bear, “Do not give shelter to this prince. Human beings are our enemies. Push him down on the ground and let me make him my meal.”“No, I will never do such an evil thing.” said the bear. “Moreover, he is my guest,” the bear added.In the morning, when the prince woke up, he saw the bear sleeping beside him. The cunning tiger said to the prince, “Don’t trust this wicked bear! He is being nice to you only till the time I am sitting here. The moment I leave, he will kill you. So, I would advise you to push this bear down before me. I will eat him and let you go.”The selfish prince thought that it was not a bad idea to throw the bear down and save his life. So, he pushed the unsuspecting bear off the branch. The bear woke up with a jerk and caught hold of another branch and saved his life somehow. He cursed the prince for his selfishness and said, “It was indeed a mistake on my part to place my trust in a selfish human being like you.” Moral:Selfish people are only concerned about themselves. Even if someone is being good to them, they suspect something wrong and end up losing everyone in their lives.

This is a classic story from panchtantra.This is a story of bear, tiger and prince.Moral(s) of the story: selfishness

The prince and the bear

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

An old farmer had three sons. They were young and strong. But they were all very lazy. They wanted money to spend. But they did not want to work to earn money.One day the farmer said to them, “I have buried some treasure in our field. Dig out the treasure and share it among you.” So the next day the young men eagerly went to the field and started digging it. They worked hard for several days. They dug each and every inch of the field but found no treasure anywhere.They went to their father and told him that they had failed to find the treasure. The father said, “Never mind. Now that you have dug the field so well, let us sow it with corn.”So they sowed the field with corn. Luckily for them, it rained very well that year. The corn ripened and the field looked beautiful with the rich crop. The young men showed the field to their father with great pride.The farmer said, “What a bumper crop! This is the very treasure I wanted you to share among you. If you work hard, you will get such treasure year after year.” Moral:Hard-work pays off in every way.

This is a classic story from Vikas books.This is a story of farmer.Moral(s) of the story: hard work

The Hidden Treasure

A long time ago, a lion named Kharankhara used to live in a forest. The lion had grown very old and weak. He was unable to hunt for his food anymore. This was a great source of worry for him. He thought that he might starve to death. One day, as he was roaming around in the forest, desperately trying to look for some food, he came across a cave. The lion thought that there must be some animal living in the cave. Suddenly, a plan struck him. He thought that he would go and hide inside the cave and when the owner of the cave returned, he would kill him and eat him. So, he went inside the cave and hid himself. After a while, a fox approached the cave. The cave was this fox’s home. As the fox was walking towards her cave, she happened to look at the ground. She was surprised to see the footprints of a lion going inside the cave but not coming out of it again. The fox wanted to make sure that the lion was inside the cave so she thought of a trick. She stood some distance away from the cave and called out, “Hello, cave! I have returned. May I come in? Why aren’t you replying, dear cave? Speak to me as you always do.” When the lion heard the fox, he thought that this cave must really be a talking cave. He thought that maybe the cave was not replying to the fox because of the lion’s presence inside it. He was worried that if the cave did not reply, the fox might leave it and go to reside in some other cave and thus, he would miss his chance of having a meal. So, trying to be smart, the lion thought of replying to the fox, pretending to be the cave. He roared out, “I have not stopped speaking to you, dear fox. Please come in and make yourself at home.” The clever fox immediately knew that the lion was hiding inside the cave. She said, “No one but an absolute fool would believe that a cave can speak,” and ran for her life as fast as she could. Moral:Presence of mind and quick thinking can get us out of any difficult situation.

This is a classic story from panchtantra.This is a story of fox and lion.Moral(s) of the story: wisdom

Hello, cave!  

Reggie Mouse loved cheese. He ate cheese for breakfast, cheese for lunch, and cheese for dinner. He never ate anything else.Reggie’s mom, Rita Mouse, always told him, “Reggie, it is fine to eat cheese, but you should also eat healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, cereal, breads, chicken, and fish, too.”Reggie Mouse would smile and say, “No way, Mom, I will only eat cheese and nothing else.”One day as Reggie Mouse got dressed, all the buttons on his shirt went, “Pop, Pop, Pop.” “Oh, no, my shirt has “SHRUNK!” cried Reggie Mouse. And as Reggie Mouse put on a pair of his pants, “Rip, Rip, Rip,” went the pants. “Oh, no, my pants have “SHRUNK!” too, cried Reggie Mouse.Reggie Mouse then ran to his closet and tried on all of his clothes. “Pop, Pop, Pop” went all the buttons on all of his shirts. “Rip, Rip, Rip,” went all of his pants. Reggie Mouse cried and cried and said, “Oh, no, all of my clothes have ‘SHRUNK! What can I do?”Rita Mouse heard her son crying and quickly walked into his bedroom and asked, “Reggie, why are you crying and why are all your clothes on the floor?”“Oh, Mom, it’s awful, my clothes have all “SHRUNK,” cried Reggie Mouse in his saddest voice.“Hmmmm, all your clothes have ‘SHRUNK’? I think I know what we can do to ‘Un-Shrink’ them,” she said.“Reggie, if you want to ‘Un-Shrink’ your clothes you must stop eating cheese and begin eating healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, cereal, breads, fish, and chicken."That night Reggie Mouse ate chicken, carrots, spinach, and grapes for dinner. And in a very short time by eating healthy foods, Reggie’s clothes “UN-SHRUNK!”Moral: A healthy diet and routine exercise is very important.

This is a story of carrot, cheese, chicken, fish, grapes,Moral(s) of the story; health hygiene

sharing 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.