Folk tales 001
Folk tale (ESL 5301-001)
Following
is a folk tale told by almost all moms/grandparents to their small
kids/grandchildren while eating. The
following story has the moral that “One Should Think Well before Acting.”
The Crow and the Fox
Once upon a time, a fox and a crow lived in a
forest. The crow, being small, took a
piece of food from a neighboring house and was happily eating perching on a
tree top. A fox that passed through the
way noticed the crow and immediately came up with a plan to trick the
crow. The fox slowly approached the tree
and spoke to the crow: “My dear friend, the whole jungle was filled
with unpleasant sounds without you and your sheer presence brings life to the
jungle. It would be great if you could
sing a song with your sweet voice for other creatures in the forest”. The crow, flattered by the fox's continuous
compliments, opened its mouth to sing.
As soon as it opened its mouth, the entire food fell down and the fox
happily ate all the food. The crow looked
at the fox helplessly and learnt an important lesson of life –
“Think before you act”. (Sriramvignesh Mani)
The Pony across the River
Pony and his mother lived near a small river; he
had a very happy lifetime with his mother. One day, his mother said to pony:
“Pony, you have grown up, would you help me to carry this bag full of food to
your aunt’s home which is located in a village right across the river?”
“Certainly. I would be very glad,” said pony.
He was laden with food and came quickly to the
small river. But there was no bridge over the river. He wanted to go across the
river, but he didn’t know how deep the water was. When he was wondering, he saw
a cow was eating not far away. Pony quickly ran to cow: "Dear uncle, do you
know how deep the river is, or whether I could go across the river? The cow said
smoothly with a smile, “don’t worry about it. The river is just to my leg."
Pony went back the river and tried to go through
the river. At this time, he heard a voice saying, "Pony, pony don’t go!
This river is so deep that it drowned my friend last week.” A small squirrel shouted,
“Two days ago, one of my friends accidentally fell into the river; the river
took him and swept him away."
Pony had no idea, how he could go across the river. He
had to go back and ask his mother. He returned home and told his
mother. "Never mind, let's go and
see," said his mother.
Pony and his mother came to the river again. “Try
to cross the river by yourself,” Mother said. Pony ventured cautiously, step
by step walking through the river. Oh, he knew, neither was it like the cow says, a river so
shallow, nor like the squirrel says, so deep. It is most important to do things
by oneself. “Thank you, mother." He was particularly happy today.
Through this story we know, if we want to
understand the truth, the only way is to go and try by ourselves. (Songhe)
Arabian Nights
Arabian nights or as the literal translation of the
Arabic name “one thousand and one nights” is one of the most famous and
probably advanced collections of fiction stories in Arabic literature. The
collection was published in a book with the same name, which was translated to
many languages and became very famous worldwide.
The book tells the story of a king called Shahriar,
who used to marry a new wife each day and kill her by dawn. Shahriar kept this
habit for long time, until all the girls in the city were either killed or
escaped to save their lives.
One day, one of the guards of Shahriar told him
that the prime minister had a beautiful daughter whom he was hiding for long
time, her name was Shahrzad. The king immediately called for his prime
minister, and asked to marry his daughter. The prime minister was shocked, but
couldn’t say a word other than, yes my lord; then he went home, and sadly told
his daughter about the king's proposal, and asked her to escape, while he would
stay and probably be killed. Shahrzad was a smart girl; she asked her father
not to be worried and to proceed with the wedding arrangements. She simply had
a plan; every night she would start a new fiction story to the king, and keep
telling the story until dawn; then she would stop and promise to continue the next
night; once a story was finished, she immediately would start a new one. The king was
impressed by the stories, and was always eager to know how each one would end.
Shahrzad kept doing this for a long, long time, until Shahriar forgot about his
bad habit, and they lived happily ever after. (Muhammad A. Muhammad)
Folk Tale
This is a story
about a farmer
and his four
sons.
Once upon a time,
there was a
farmer in a
small village of
India. He had
huge lands on
which he used
to cultivate rice
and wheat. He
had four sons
who always used
to keep fighting
with one another
on various petty
issues. He used
to get sad
and depressed seeing
his sons arguing
all the time
with each other.
Overall, it was
not a happy,
united family and the
farmer was not
able to make
his sons realize
the importance of
togetherness in a family.
He was
around 75 years
old, and the
thought of his
sons fighting with
each other always
used to disturb
him. One day,
the farmer was
very sick and
with each passing
day, his health
started deteriorating. The sons
called the local
doctor near their
village to check
their father and
give him medicines.
The doctor made
it very clear
that maybe, these were the last
few days of
the farmer’s life
and that he
wouldn’t be able
to survive for
a long time.
Once the farmer
got to know
this, he decided
to make the
property papers in
order to divide
all his property
and money between
his four sons.
But he was very
confused about the
ratio in which
his property should
be divided. He didn’t
know if he
should divide all
his possessions equally
amongst his four
sons or he
should give claim
of his property
in accordance with
the age of
his sons.
The sad part
was that even
when the farmer
was on death
bed, the four
sons kept fighting
with each other
on the issue
of division of
the property. The
farmer made a
resolution that before
dying, he would
sort out all
the issues between
the four brothers,
so that after
his death, they wouldn’t fight with
each other anymore.
He decided to
teach them a
lesson by asking
them to do
a small activity.
He asked each
of his sons to bring
a small, thin
wood stick and
then asked each
one of them
to break their
wood stick. Everyone
was successful in
doing what their
father told them
to do. He
again asked each
of his four
sons to bring
a small, thin
wood stick but
this time, he
asked them to
tie together all
these four wood
sticks in and
make a bundle
of them. Once
his sons were
finished following his
instructions, he then
asked them to
break this bundle
of wood sticks.
This time none of his son was
able to break
the bundle. Seeing their sad faces,
he asked all
of them to
come and sit
beside him. He told them that his four sons were like four wood
sticks. If they kept on fighting like this, anyone might very easily break the bond
of the family. But if the four of them didn’t argue or
fight with each
other over small
issues and instead
tried to solve
them by talking patiently with each other, their family
would get strengthened and no outsider
would be able to break their bond.
Our
families are also
like small, thin
wood sticks. If
we keep fighting
or judging each
other over several
issues, we won’t
be able to
maintain a healthy,
peaceful living. But,
if we sort out our
issues and problems
by talking openly
and calmly with
each other, we
would live a
happy and healthier
life and no
one would be
able to break
our bond in our worst
situations.
So, what did we learn from this story? We learnt that
“unity is strength”. This story makes us
realize that we can conquer the greatest challenges in our lives if we have a healthy, strong, united family to guard us
all the time and help us whenever we need
them. (Harnoor Kaur)
Folk Tale
In ancient China, there was a man working on his farm one day. Suddenly, a fat rabbit rushed out quickly and crashed into a tree. The rabbit died immediately because it broke its neck. The farmer just witnessed the whole process, so he took the rabbit home for dinner. The rabbit was fresh and juicy; since the farmer was very poor, this dinner was best of the year he ever had. Watching the bones leaving on the plate, the man started to doubt himself, “Even though I work hard on the farm every day, what I get cannot satisfy me at all. Today I did nothing but watched the rabbit hitting the tree and died, but I got a wonderful dinner at the end. So why do I have to work?” Then an idea was coming to him. In the next day, he discarded all his plow tools and sat next to the tree to wait for the same thing to happen. He believed that another rabbit would die for the same reason in some days, and he did not want to miss it. Day by day, the farm was overgrown with grass, and the man could not even see any shadow of rabbit. His story became popular in his town, and parents would use this story to give their kids a lesson that people should always rely on their own hands but not luck. (Jieying)Folk Tale
The Story of Tich Chu
Once upon a time, in a small village in Vietnam,
there was a little boy named Tich Chu. He was an orphaned child, living with
his grandma. Grandma had to work very hard to raise him; she gave him all her
love and thoughtful care. However, Tich Chu seemed not to love her; he spent
all his time hanging out with his friends and never cared about Grandma.
One day, Grandma was so sick
that she could not get up. Meanwhile, Tich Chu was not home, still busy playing
with his friends. Grandma was very thirsty, and she started calling Tich Chu:
- Tich Chu, please give me a sip of water. I am
very thirsty.
She called him one time, two
times, and three times; but Tich Chu did not show up. Then, she turned into a
bird and flew away. Just at that moment, Tich Chu came home looking for
something to eat, and he saw everything that happened to Grandma. He ran after the
bird and cried:
- No, Grandma, don’t fly away. Please stay with me!
- I am very thirsty; I have to find water – replied
the bird; and she kept flying away.
Tich Chu kept running after the bird while crying
bitterly. Finally, the bird landed next to a spring and started to drink water
there. Tich Chu tried to approach the bird and insisted:
- Grandma, I’m sorry, I’m very sorry. Please come
back with me. I will give you water, I will take care of you. Please don’t
leave me alone.
- It’s too late, too late, Tich Chu. I cannot turn
back to a human anymore. Cuckoo, cuckoo, koo…- said sadly the bird.
Tich Chu burst into crying desperately. He felt
regret for having afflicted his Grandma before, and he did not know how to have
her back with him. Suddenly, a beautiful fairy appeared and asked why he was
crying. Tich Chu told everything to the fairy. Then, the fairy said:
- If you want your Grandma back to be a human, you
should let her drink the water from a magical spring in a distant land. It is
very far from here. I am not sure if you can do it.
- Yes, I can. I will do whatever to turn my Grandma
back to a human – said determinedly Tich Chu.
The fairy gave him a pitcher and showed him how to
get to the magic spring. After going over many mountains and rivers, finally,
Tich Chu found the spring and filled his pitcher with its water. He came back
and had the Grandma bird drank that water. The magic indeed worked; his Grandma
was back to being a human. From that day on, Tich Chu always took good care of
Grandma, and he never left her alone in sickness. (Nam Giang Trinh)
Once upon a time there was a rich man. He was very greedy and his house was full of costly utensils. Poor people in his town used to borrow his utensils whenever they had ceremonies in their home. The people had to return the utensil along with a hefty rent after the use. The greedy rich man suddenly increased the rent of his utensils and the people became very sad. One day a very strange thing happened. One man who borrowed the rich man’s utensils returned a couple of utensils more than those he borrowed. The rich man got perplexed and asked the man how come it was possible. The man replied that some of the utensils were pregnant while he took them home and they delivered baby utensils in his home. He also said it was his duty to return both parent and baby utensils back to the owner. The rich man couldn’t believe this story. He knew that it was not possible. However, because of his greedy nature, he thought it was ok to accept the extra vessels from the man. After several days the man again came back to borrow some of the very expensive utensils from the rich man. The rich man gladly gave him all the expensive utensils that he had, in the belief that he would get more utensils and money in return. The man took all the borrowed expensive utensils to his home. Several days passed and the man was not returning the expensive utensils. The rich man became restless and worried. One day he decided to meet the man who borrowed his expensive utensils and went to see him in his home. After some time the rich man reached the house of the other man and inquired of him why he was not returning the expensive utensils. The man replied that this time all the expensive utensils that he borrowed died in his home. So it was not possible for him to return them back. The rich man became silent and couldn’t say anything back to the other man. The moral of the story is, "greediness will make you lose everything.” (Sankar)
Genius Mahosod and the Cow Thief
Once upon a time, there was a seven-year-old boy named Mahosod. He was very clever. He solved many hard problems easily.
People in his town assigned him to be a judge. Whenever people had conflicts,
they would go to see him and admit his justice. And his justice never let
anyone down.
This is a chapter in his very long story.
A cow owner goes to take a shower in a big lake. He ties his cow with a tree
and hopes it is safe. A bad guy walks past and then he takes. The owner on the
lake sees everything the thief makes. (I try to make a poem)
The owner runs to catch that bad guy, but
he has to cry. The bad guy denies. “You can’t verify. There are no other eyes.”
The bad one smiles. They begin to fight, until some people stop by. The people
apologize; they can’t justify, but they know who can try. They take the two guys;
they go to Mahosod’s help.
Mahosod does it easily. The genius asks them
simply, “What food you feed this cow?” The thief is so proud; he does take care of
his cow. He fed it milk and grains. The true owner complains, he is so vain. I’m a
poor man. I fed it with grasses.
Mahosod smiles. He tells the guy to mix a
medicine. If he feeds this kind, the cow will vomit. Then he feeds the medicine
to the cow, and waits for some hours, the cow vomits it out.
Its vomit is the grasses. Then Mahosod
asks, which one is arch? The people don’t doubt that the one who’s false. The
vomit is grasses, then it ate grasses. Then the man who said that he fed it
with milk and grains is the thief. The owner receives, whose cow was thieved.
And the thief runs away.
People salute Mahosod again. The news of
his intelligence comes to the King. Then what is the next thing? What’s
happening? Please be waiting 'til the next chapter. (Ariyawat)
The Walker and his Animals
A man, his horse and his dog walked by a rural road when suddenly lightning fell and killed all three immediately. The man did not notice that he had died and continued on his way with the horse and the dog.
The road had a strong slope. The weather was very hot. It was very dusty also and they had walked a long distance. They were exhausted and thirsty.
After a curve, the man saw a large beautifully decorated gate. He could see that the gate was the entrance to a huge garden with all kinds of trees and flowers. He saw that in the middle of the garden a huge pool offered fresh water to its visitors.
The man walked in the direction of the guard that protected the gate. After greeting, the man asked him about the name of that beautiful and comfortable place. The guard said this is the heaven. The man, surprised, said: Oh!!.. Marvelous, we are in the heaven. We are thirsty!. The guard, pointing at the pool, said to the man: In this place, you can drink all water you want. Please, go ahead…but, only you can pass. The man said: My horse and my dog also want to drink water. They also are thirsty. I am sorry – said the guard - In this place the entrance of animals is not allowed.
The man was angry because he was so thirsty, but he did not think of drinking water alone. He got up, said good bye to the guard and continued walking.
The road had its huge slope yet and the sun heated up even more. They were really tired at that moment when they arrived to another place. This time the little gate was made of old wood. He could see that the gate led to a dusty road which finished in a puddle of water surrounded by several trees. Next to a tree, an old man was sitting on the ground; he probably was sleeping. The thirsty man and his animals entered and walked in direction of the old man. Good morning!, said the walker. The old man answered with a movement of his head. The man continued: We are thirsty: my dog, my horse and me, said the man. The old man responded: There is a little river next to those rocks. You and your animals can drink all the water you need. The walker and his animals went to the river and they gorged their thirst. After that, they came back to where the old man was sitting and thanked the man for the courtesy. The old man responded: You and your animals can come back when you like. After thanks again, the man said: What is the name of this place? The heaven, answered the old man. Really? But we just passed another place a few miles ago, and its guard told me that was the Heaven! Said the man, That is not the heaven, it is the hell. Said the old man, You should prohibit others from using your name. This information is false and can induct to errors! said the man. No way - rebuked the old man – they really do a favor to us, because in that place stay all those capable of abandoning their best friends. (Elliot)
A man, his horse and his dog walked by a rural road when suddenly lightning fell and killed all three immediately. The man did not notice that he had died and continued on his way with the horse and the dog.
The road had a strong slope. The weather was very hot. It was very dusty also and they had walked a long distance. They were exhausted and thirsty.
After a curve, the man saw a large beautifully decorated gate. He could see that the gate was the entrance to a huge garden with all kinds of trees and flowers. He saw that in the middle of the garden a huge pool offered fresh water to its visitors.
The man walked in the direction of the guard that protected the gate. After greeting, the man asked him about the name of that beautiful and comfortable place. The guard said this is the heaven. The man, surprised, said: Oh!!.. Marvelous, we are in the heaven. We are thirsty!. The guard, pointing at the pool, said to the man: In this place, you can drink all water you want. Please, go ahead…but, only you can pass. The man said: My horse and my dog also want to drink water. They also are thirsty. I am sorry – said the guard - In this place the entrance of animals is not allowed.
The man was angry because he was so thirsty, but he did not think of drinking water alone. He got up, said good bye to the guard and continued walking.
The road had its huge slope yet and the sun heated up even more. They were really tired at that moment when they arrived to another place. This time the little gate was made of old wood. He could see that the gate led to a dusty road which finished in a puddle of water surrounded by several trees. Next to a tree, an old man was sitting on the ground; he probably was sleeping. The thirsty man and his animals entered and walked in direction of the old man. Good morning!, said the walker. The old man answered with a movement of his head. The man continued: We are thirsty: my dog, my horse and me, said the man. The old man responded: There is a little river next to those rocks. You and your animals can drink all the water you need. The walker and his animals went to the river and they gorged their thirst. After that, they came back to where the old man was sitting and thanked the man for the courtesy. The old man responded: You and your animals can come back when you like. After thanks again, the man said: What is the name of this place? The heaven, answered the old man. Really? But we just passed another place a few miles ago, and its guard told me that was the Heaven! Said the man, That is not the heaven, it is the hell. Said the old man, You should prohibit others from using your name. This information is false and can induct to errors! said the man. No way - rebuked the old man – they really do a favor to us, because in that place stay all those capable of abandoning their best friends. (Elliot)
