Stories with Morals

There once was a dog that was very hungry. He searched for food everywhere, and at last he found a bone. He picked up the bone with his mouth and happily started going back to his home.

On the way, he came to a bridge. When he started crossing it he saw his reflection in the water. The dog thought it was another dog with a bone, and he wanted to get that other bone too, so he started barking at his own reflection.

His bone fell in the water as soon as he opened his mouth and the greedy dog lost his bone.

Moral of the story: don’t be greedy!

Once upon a time a donkey found a lion’s skin. He dressed himself in the skin, and wherever he went the other animals and people feared him. Everyone thought he was a real lion.

Soon he started to think of himself as a lion. One day he heard some donkeys in the village. He wanted to show them that he can be even louder, so he started braying back. The villagers heard him and ran after him with sticks. They beat him to death, and thus the poor donkey paid the price for his foolishness.

Moral: never masquerade as someone else.

Once upon a time, there lived four cows in the forest. Everyday they grazed together in their favourite grassy spot. They were all friends.

One day a lion saw the cows grazing together. The lion wanted to eat them, so he tried to catch one of them. When the cows saw the lion all of them fought him off together. The lion ran away.

A few days past and the cow started to argue between themselves. They started to graze separately. One by one the lion killed all of them.

Moral of the story: unity is strength.

Once upon a time, a man and his wife had the good fortune to have a goose which laid a golden egg every day. Lucky though they were, they soon began to think they were not getting rich fast enough. They imagined that if the bird must be able to lay golden eggs then its insides must be made of gold too. They thought that if they could get all the precious metal at once they would get mighty rich very soon.

So the man and his wife decided to kill the bird. However, upon cutting the goose open, they were shocked to find that its innards were like that of any other goose!

Moral: think before you act.

One hot day, an ant was searching for some water. After walking around for some time she came to a spring, but to reach it 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 off a leaf and dropped it into the water near the struggling ant. The ant grabbed the leaf and climbed up onto it, and the dove carried her to dry ground.

Just at that time, a hunter nearby was throwing out his net towards 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 deserves another!