The Tailor and his tools and other short stories

Two Short Stories for kids based on Staying Sharp and Being Honest

Story one: The Tailor and His Tools

Once upon a time, a very brilliant tailor asked for a job at a fashion designer’s Boutique. He was really good at his job and the designer hired him. The pay was really good.

The tailor is an honest man and wanted to do a good job. His boss gave him a pair of Scissors and showed him some materials that had to cut and stitched. On the first day, the tailor stitched more than 20 outfits.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss's words, the tailor would try harder the next day, but he could manage only 18 outfits the next day. On the third day, he tried even harder, but he only stitched 7.

Day after day he was stitching fewer and fewer outfits.

 “I must be losing my strength”, the tailor thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your scissor?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my scissor. I have been very busy trying to stitch outfits.”

His scissors had gotten blunt,  as he constantly cut a lot of clothes.  Once the tailor realized his mistake he spent some time everyday to sharpen his scissors and then start the days work.

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the scissor.

Moral of the Story

In the story, the scissors is a metaphor for our skills and life. If we work our selves too hard without rest, rejuvenation and time to develop our skills , we will end up being less and less efficient

There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should never get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like taking time to play, to read, to connect with our friends . We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow.

 

Story two: The Bull and The Donkey

Long ago there lived a gifted farmer. He had a bull and an donkey on his farm. He could understand the animals talking. It was a gift by given God from his birth. The bull was used to plow the fields and the donkey to carry the goods to the market for sale. Both the animals helped him very much.

On a particular day, the bull and the donkey were taking their food in the garden. The farmer was working behind the tree, so they hadn’t noticed him. He heard them talking. The donkey pitied the bull. It said, "I am eating food the whole day, but I work very little. But you work hard for the whole day with the same amount of food".

The bull replied that the donkey was right, but it could do nothing against the farmer. The donkey said , “ you should just pretend sick”. The bull also accepted this suggestion happily. The farmer had heard the plan and was ready to face the situation.

The next day the farmer went to the backyard with an idea. He went near the bull to take it to the fields. The bull quickly said in a low voice that he could not even move his legs. Now the farmer readily agreed and said, “Ok, you take rest today. I will take the donkey today".

So, he moved towards the donkey and dragged the donkey with him to the field to plow. That day the donkey had to work very hard in the field. The donkey came back in the evening in a totally exhausted condition. The bull cheered the donkey and said, "I shall act sick tomorrow also and take rest".

“No, No" the quick voice came from the donkey “don’t pretend further".

The donkey said, "The farmer was very angry with you today ". Further, the donkey told the bull that the farmer was ready to sell the bull to a butcher if he kept falling sick. So the donkey asked the bull to get up early in the morning. "We should not hesitate to do our work “, the Donkey said.

The farmer heard the conversation He smiled and thought that the donkey had learned a lesson. It also advised the bull to work faithfully for its master.

Moral of the Story

Have a conversation with your kids about what they learnt from the story. Clearly, everybody has their role and they cannot continue to shirk responsibilities.

When you come up with ideas to cheat others, you often end up cheating yourself

If your kid likes animals, you can encourage him to learn more about Animals through our products

These short stories were written by Jasmine. Jasmine is a editor, proof reader and a children's short story writer. She writes in English and Tamil. In her free time she likes to read, travel and work on her organic farm.

 

 


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