Short Story One: Colour changing sticks!
Long ago, somewhere in the region of Maghada dynasty, lived a big landlord. He had a big farm. Hundreds of people were working for him. He had many fields for farming, he had around a hundred numbers of cattle and horses. He was always busy. As it was difficult to manage everything on his own, he had appointed managers and supervisors who would take care of daily activities.
One day, the farm manager came running to the landlord complaining that 10 of their cows were missing from the lot. The landlord became anxious. He asked him to look for it everywhere. The result was negative even after searching for many hours. Worrying about the cows, the landlord ordered a detailed investigation.
A team of 3 people from the court of the king came to the farm. One among them was witty. His name was Shravan. He asked all the people who worked in the farm to stand in a line! Then, he handed a cane stick to each one of them. Then, he said that those sticks were magical. They changed their colours according to the person. In case, the person was a thief, then the stick colour would change into red, if not, then the colour would change to blue. He asked them to keep the stick next to them and not exchange their sticks with anybody. That the answer would be revealed in the next morning.
3 people in the group had stolen those cows and planning to trade it off. All the 3 were very scared. They discussed as to how to come out of the problem. One of them gave an idea that if they would paint their canes blue, then they would be safe. The other 2 happily agreed. Foolishly without thinking much, they painted their canes blue. The next day, when everyone assembled, they were surprised to see none of the canes had changed the colour, except for the 3, which belonged to the thieves. Everyone understood, why they had coloured it blue and praised the wittiness of the investigator Shravan. The thieves were sent to prison.
Parenting Takeaway
Witty stories encourage lateral thinking in kids. Instead of reading the last paragraph out right, you can ask your child what she thinks would have happen? This way you encourage the child to think of different possibilities and options and build lateral thinking
Short Story Two: The thin line between frugality and stinginess
In the city of Hassan, long back there lived a stingy man by name Abdul. He was well known for his shrewd business mind and stingy nature. He owned a shop of furniture. He was one of the finest craftsmen, the furniture he made was supplied to the palaces and bungalows of kings. He was very proud of himself for the same.
One summer, he got a desire to have the finest mangoes. He went in search of them. He went to a fruit shop in the city, and asked the price of the mangoes. The shopkeeper replied that it was 20 annas. He said that they were very expensive. He tried to bargain, but it did not work. The shop keeper said that, if he wanted to have mangoes at a cheaper price, may -be he should try in the outskirts of the city. Abdul, walked till the outskirts where, he saw some shops. The price of mangoes there were 15annas. He again bargained, there the shop keepers said that he could try in the neighbouring village for 10 annas! Without thinking much about the strain and efforts he started walking miles together to the neighbouring village. He thought when he has gone till there, with all the strain, he should bargain and get more mangoes for lesser money. He approached a mango vendor and started to bargain. The price was bargained to 8annas. Even then he was not happy. He thought the price should still come down. One of the vendors there, on a lighter note; suggested him to go to the farm, climb up the tree and directly pluck how many ever mangoes he wanted. He took the suggestion seriously and went to the farm. Seeing the mango trees in the farm, he was lured and thought he could pluck as many mangoes he wanted. He climbed the tree. But unfortunately, he fell down from the tree and broke his legs.
Moral of the Story
There is a proverb in English which says, “Be thrifty but not stingy”. Saving money, even compromising on buying something which we need in order to save money is fine. But we have to spend money where it is necessary. We should not make decisions where in we finally end up spending more and even giving away what we have!
Our Short stories for kids are designed for kids to ask questions, build questions and learn more. Have you seen our other learning products?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Smitha Prasad is a budding writer who writes articles and short stories for kids. She believes that childhood is the right age to inculcate the right values in kids. It helps them to develop into confident adults. She designs and runs a kid’s magazine called A LITTLE MORE-An Engaging booklet, through which she tries to reach kids that helps kids stay away from screen, build conversations and build the right mindset in kids
