Short Story 1: old Man and the Mango Tree
In a far away village, there lived an old man. He had very few years left in him. He must have been 80 years old or even more. No one knew his age. He was just an old man in the village
Everyday he would wake up and leave his house . go for a tiny walk outside the village and come back.
Binny and his family had just moved into the house next to the old man’s house. Binny was an observant young boy and he noticed that the old man goes out everyday the same time
Binny was also a very curious boy. He wanted to know what the old man was upto. One day he followed the old man without being seen. After walking a short distance he noticed that the old man stopped near a small mango plant. He fetched a small bucket and filled it with water from the nearby pond and watered it.
Binny was amazed at this. He forgot all about not being seen and went straight to the old man and asked him, “ Sir, you are so old and you are watering such a tiny tree, you will probably never be able to eat its fruit.”
The old man let out a laugh and explained that he knew that he would never be able to enjoy the fruits of his labour, but he was watering the plant for the future generations' benefit. Also I love the walk and the purpose this plant gives me
Moral of the Story:
We often look for results and many of our actions are directed toward getting results. This is a beautiful story to remind us all that sometimes the action itself is the reward and we need not always focus on the results
Short Story 2: Bird in hand, worth two in the bush
Once upon a time there was a very poor man in the village. He used to eat whatever he could hunt in the forest.
He would hunt for game once in two or three days, bring back the game and cook it and eat. He wouldn’t spend too much in the forest because he was scared of the leopards that roamed the forest.
One summer month, it was very hot and the forest was parched and there was nothing to eat. The poor man was slowly walking around in the forest. He came across a bird perched on a low branch. The man was very light on his feet and the bird did not notice him coming. He quickly grabbed the bird and held it.
Just as we was about to leave the forest, he saw a large deer standing near the tree. He had one arrow and he could aim for the deer with it. He let the bird in his had fly and took the las arrow from the quiver and shot at the deer. Lucky for the deer it saw the man at the last minute and ran away, just as the arrow had left the quiver. Now the man was left with nothing, not the bird or the deer.
Moral of the story:
This is a beautiful story to illustrate the fact that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. The man should never have gotten greedy
Short Story 3: The Buddha and his disciple
Buddha was meditating by the tree. As he finished his meditation, he felt a bit thirsty. One of his disciples was around. He asked the disciple to fetch him some water from the pond.
The disciple took a small bowl and walked towards the pond. Just as he walked near the pond some animals had walked across and the lake water was muddy
The disciple went to the Buddha and apologised to him. The Buddha asked him to once again go to the pond. The water was still a bit muddy and not fit for consumption
The Buddha told the disciple,” Wait for a while.”After sometime, the Buddha said,”Please go fetch the water now.” This time the water was crystal clear. The disciple asked the Buddha what magic he had done.
The Buddha replied,” Time. When the animals walked across the water they had made the water muddy. But just giving it some time, the mud settled and the water became clear again. Our anger is exactly like the animals running in the water and making it muddy. If we give some time, the anger disperses and we become like the clear water.”
Moral of the story:
This is a beautiful short story to illustrate that we should never act when we are angry. We should take time and then our mind calms down
Short Story 4: The Broken Pot
A man lived in a small hut. This story is from a long time ago, so there was no plumbing in his house. He used to two pots to bring water back into his house from the nearby well.One of the pots had a small hole. The man would always hold the pot with the hole in his left hand. By the time the time the man reached the house, the pot on the right would still be full and the pot on his left would be always half full,
One of the neighbour’s kid observed this and asked the man why he using a broken pot. The man smiled and said,”There are two reasons for this. My left hand is a bit weak and I cant carry the whole pot of water in my left hand. The other reason is that the path gets watered when i bring back the water.”
He pointed to the path and sure enough, one side of the walkway was green and flowering plants and the other side was barren.”
Moral of the story:
This story teaches us that every thing has its uses. We might think of something as useless because it is flawed, but then it serves a bigger purpose in the universe
Short Story 5: The Lioness and the Mouse
This is a story about the Lioness and a Mouse.As we all know, lionesses are aggressive, haughty, and inclined to look down on smaller animals. Once while the lioness was walking around in the jungle, a thorn once pierced the paw of one of the lioness as she was circling the bush. The lioness made the proud decision to forgo seeking assistance. She wandered the jungle while bleeding and becoming weaker.
One day she came across a lowly mouse. The lioness was suffering greatly. Despite being really afraid, the mouse had the guts to give assistance. He pulled the thorn out of the lioness’ paw. Finally the lioness got relief from the pain and realised that she should have sought assistance much earlier
Moral of the story:
Everyone has a role in society, A person might be the prime minister of the country, but he still needs a doctor when he falls sick. We all have roles and each of us is important
Short Story 6: The world is a mirror, it reflects who we are as a person
One day, two young men came to meet a guru. The two men had left their town and were travelling . The Guru’s ashram came enroute and they decided to stop there and seek his advice and blessings.
The guru asked the first young man what the purpose of him leaving his hometown was. The man said, “I hated the town. Everyone in the town is selfish and I had a tough time in the town.
I am leaving the town to find better opportunities.” The guru told him that, he would never find such a town anywhere in the world and said he should stop the journey there itself.
The second man, when asked the same question, said,”Sir, I love my home town. I decided to leave the town to see new places and add to my experiences. I want to work in different places and learn new things”
The guru then told him that he could continue his journey and he will find purpose wherever he goes.
Moral of the story:
This is a beautiful story to illustrate that the world holds a mirror to us. If we look at things in the negative light, we will see only negatives. If we look at things in the positive light the world will be a positive place and we can learn and grow
Short Story 7: She can sing better than me
Once in a forest, a peacock was dancing very beautifully. His radiant bluish green train was fully out and it was a beautiful sight indeed. There was a slight drizzle and the petrichor combined with the dance truly made the forest heaven on earth
There was a turtle hidden behind the bush and watching this. After a while, he couldn’t stop himself. He came out of hiding and called to the peacock,” Friend Peacock, This is such a beautiful dance. I have never seen anything more beautiful in the world.”
But he noticed that the peacock was sad. The Turtle asked the peacock what made him sad. The peacock said, I am only pretty to look at. Have you seen the cuckoo bird? It has the sweetest voice in the world. When I open my mouth and sing everyone runs away, but people love to listen to the cuckoo bird.
The turtle was taken aback for a moment. But, Turtles are old and wise creatures and our turtle was no different. He told the peacock,” Dear friend, we each have our strengths and weaknesses. We can never compete with others on these things. If I were to compete with a rabbit while running a race on land, I would surely lose. But, if we were to have a swimming race on water, who do you think will win?”
The Peacock realised his mistake and decided to be thankful for his beauty rather than lament his bad voice
Moral of the Story:
Every individual is unique and we each have our strengths and weaknesses. We should be thankful of our strengths and work on building those rather than lament our weaknesses
Short Story 8: The Three Fish
In a pond lived three fish, they had always lived in this pond. These fish were great friends. The first fish was smart. The second one was not as smart, but knew that he was not smart and would listen to the first fish. The third fish on the contrary was a bit adamant and did not like to change.
These three fish usually would go to one corner of the pond and play there daily. One day, the first fish noticed a fisherman near the side of the pond where they usually play. Since he was very smart, he knew that he should not go to that side on this day. He told his friends the same thing. The second fish as usual agreed with the first fish.
The third fish was adamant, did not like change and wanted to prove that he was smarter than the first fish. He told the other two that he was going to go to the usual side of the pond. Inspite of the other two fish trying to stop him, he still went and got caught in the net
Moral of the Story:
Adapting to change is the most important character in today’s world
Short Story 9: Daily effort
There were two athletes, who were very good friends. They used to do track running for their school. When they were about 14 they were set to participate in a district level game.
Both the boys were very good athletes and used to practise with each other in the same ground. One day, while getting back from their daily athletics practice, they had an accident. Both of them sustained major injuries.
Luckily, they were rushed into the hospital and came out of it alive. But they had many injuries and could barely walk.
The first kid was very frustrated and gave up sport. He became petulant and started blaming everything and everybody.He continued to be angry all his life and he needed a walking support cane to get around.
The second kid too sustained major injuries and could not walk without support initially. Luckily his aunt was a physiotherapist. She gave him simple exercises to do. They were simple and had no effect initially, but the boy decided to trust the process. He did physical therapy exercises daily without fail. Slowly his strength improved. After 2 years, he could walk without the cane.. Slowly he started working on his lower body strength and was able to jog. By the time he was 17 and final year in school, he started running for his district. In the next few years he continued to compete and he even competed at the national level. In fact the extra exercises he had done to get out of his injuries helped him to grow fitter than most of his peers.
Both the boys were presented with a setback in life, one of them gave up. The other didn’t. He decided to work harder and get out of the setback and was able to achieve many things in life
Moral of the story:
This is a growth mindset story. In a growth mindset failures are not seen as the end but as stepping stones to doing great things. The second boy in this story did great things because he decided to put extra effort to get around his set back
Short story 10: The Ant and the elephant
One day an ant was speaking to a pregnant elephant and he asked,” How many days before the baby is born?”
The elephant replied that elephant mamas are pregnant for almost two years before the baby is born. The ant was shocked and said how can you be so patient
The elephant mama thought for a while and said , at the end of two years the moment i give birth the earth will shake. My baby will be big. Everything worth doing requires patience
Moral of the story:
The elephant knows that patience is very important to do great things, Also in this case if it wants the baby it knows it has no choice but to go through the patent wait of two years,This is the same in most situations, anything worth doing takes time and patience
Why Inspirational Stories for Kids:
1) Inspirational stories teach kids life lesson
2) Inspirationa stories can be good conversation starters between adults and kids on important sociall relevant topics
3) Inspirational stories are great way to spend screen free time with kids
4) Short stories help kids develop imagination.
You can further encourage your kids to increase their imagination and creativity with our posters, maps and flashcards
