Alibaba and forty thieves

     The story is from the famous Middle-Eastern folk tale collection, "One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights)"

 In Persia, there lived two brothers, Kassim and Alibaba. Kassim was very rich and Alibaba was very poor.

One day, while returning from market with his donkey, Alibaba reached a forest. He saw a group of forty men with donkeys. The donkeys were loaded with some heavy sacks. Alibaba was scared as he realized that they were robbers. He hid behind some bushes.

Then a man from the group walked toward a cave and said, “Open, sesame.” Then the door of the cave opened. The door was made of rock. All the forty men entered the cave with their donkeys. After sometime, they came out of the cave. Their leader looked at the cave and said, “Close, sesame.” Hearing this,the cave got closed. Then they left the place with their donkeys.

 Alibaba went near the cave and said, “Open Sesame.” The rock door opened. To his surprise, Alibaba saw a huge cave piled up with sacks and boxes of gold, jewels and gems.  He went inside and the door closed.

He took the gold coins in a sack. He said, “Open Sesame.” When the door opened, he put the sack on his donkey’s back and as he said, “Close Sesame.”, the door closed.

When he reached his house, he closed all doors and windows and showed his wife the bag full of gold coins. He asked her to keep this as a secret.  They needed something to measure the gold coins. His wife went to Kassim’s house to get the weighing scale. She told Kassim’s wife that they got some grains and they needed a weighing device to weigh the grains.

Kassim’s wife knew very well about Alibaba’s poverty. She became curious about what kind of grain they had got. So she put some glue under the weighing device.

When Alibaba’s wife returned the weighing device to Kassim’s wife, shelooked under the device and saw a gold coin sticking on it.

She told his husband, “Your brother became richer than us. Ask him how he got that much money.” Kassim became greedy for more wealth and became envious of Alibaba.

Kassim compelled Alibaba to reveal the source of gold coins.  Alibaba told him everything.

Next day, Kassim went to the cave with his horses. He said, “Open Sesame.” When the door opened, he went inside the cave. The cave door closed. He took all the money in huge boxes. Seeing all those money and gold, he forgot the word to say to open the door. He said, “Open Barley” instead of “Open Sesame”. The door didn’t open !

After some time, the robber’s came. They became suspicious, when they saw horses waiting outside their cave.  Kassim heard the sound of robbers and he got tensed. He hid behind a big box in the cave. But the robbers found him and they killed him.

Moral: Cleanse thy heart from greed, and thy foot shall remain free from fetters. (Arabian Proverb)

The target

This story is from the famous Indian epic, Mahabharatha.

Drona was the royal teacher of the Princes of ‘Kuru’ kingdom. One day, he planned to conduct a bow and arrow shooting test for his royal students. He made a wooden bird on the top branch of a big tree. He asked his students to shoot at the center of the bird's eye.

The princes waited for Drona to call their names. He called the oldest brother, Yudhishtira first. Yudhishtira stretched his arrow in the bow string to start shooting at the bird’s eye.

Then Drona asked, “First tell me what all things you can see. ”

Yudhishtira said, “I can see the tree, its branches, the leaves and the bird.”

Then Drona told Yudhistira, “Drop down your bow and arrow, you can’t hit the bird’s eye.”

He called each prince one by one and asked the same question to each one. Everyone answered all the things they could see. He asked them to put down their bow and asked them to wait.

Finally he called Arjuna, his favorite student. He asked, “Tell me Arjuna, What all things you can see?”

Arjuna replied, “I can see only the bird’s eye, nothing else.” Hearing this Drona asked Arjuna to shoot at the bird’s eye. Arjuna's arrow hit perfectly at the center of the bird’s eye.

All other princes were surprised to see this.

Then Drona congratulated Arjuna and explained to other students, “Arjuna hit the bird’s eye because he concentrated only on the target. He was not paying attention to other things that surround the bird.”

Faith in God

Once upon a time there lived a rich man who had no faith in God. He was searching for someone who also has no faith in God. He searched for years and couldn’t find one.

One day he saw a beggar. He was so poor that he had very dirty clothes, no house to stay in and not enough food. The rich man thought that the poor beggar might have no faith in God.

But the beggar said, “I have faith in God. I believe that my faith in God will get rewarded one day.”

The rich man lost all hope in finding one who has no faith in God.

After many years, the rich man lost all his wealth and he became poor. He went to the king seeking some help. When he reached the palace, the king came towards this man and hugged him.

The king asked, “Do you recognize me? I was the poor beggar you saw that day. After some years later, I was found out as the lost prince in this kingdom. Did I tell you that the faith in God will get rewarded? ”

The rich man understood his mistake and lived a happy life with faith in God.

Who bells the cat?

Once upon a time, there lived a family of mice, in the attic of a small house. But one day a cat moved in. He was a silent cat while hunting mouse.

 One day a young mouse cried to his mother, "Mom, I am scared of that cat. Now I was chased by the cat. He tried to catch me. Somehow I escaped."

 The mother cat hugged her scared son and said,"We must do something about the cat. We can call our family members and discuss this matter".

 In the family meeting, every cat shared similar scary experiences they faced from the cat. The old mouse said "Our main problem is that the cat is quiet.  We have to find a solution to hear him coming so that we will get some time to run and escape from him."

 All others agreed to the suggestion. They began to think about a solution.

 At last a young mouse stood up and said, "I got an idea. We can hang a bell around his neck. When he come near us, we can hear the bell ringing.  By that time we can run and escape."

 "Excellent idea!!!." Every one cheered happily and congratulated him to come up with the solution.

 But the Old mouse was not happy. He asked, "And who is the one among us going to tie the bell around the cat's neck."

Moral :: There are things that are easier said than done.

The value of silence

In a village, there lived a landlord who was very talkative. While he was talking, he didn’t give a chance for other people to talk back.

One day, he went for a walk. He saw a shepherd who was going up the hill with his sheep. The landlord started climbing the hill with the shepherd. While walking, the landlord started talking. The shepherd was silent.  After walking up some distance, the landlord became tired. He wanted to take some rest. Then the shepherd replied him, “You are too talky. That’s why you are getting tired very easily.”

Then the land lord understood the value of silence in life.

To reach a high position in life, we have to talk less and concentrate more on our work.

The best treatment

            Once upon a time, there lived a king. His kingdom was very calm and peaceful. His country had no issues with neighboring kingdoms. His people were living very peacefully. The king had a very nice palace and had obedient servants. Thus everyone in his kingdom were leading a very happy life.

The king had a very good collection of silk dresses. One day, he took his favorite shirt to wear for a special occasion. When he tried to wear that, he couldn’t. The shirt was so tight for him. He was so worried. Sadly he realized that he became so fat nowadays. He shared his worry with his minister.

The minister called the palace doctor to find a way to make the king slim. The doctor tried many medicines. But the king became fatter and fatter. The king felt angry with the doctor and he sent him to jail.

Next day, the king declared "Whoever can give me medicine to make me slim, will get 1000 gold coins. And whoever fails will end up in jail".

After so many days, a priest visited the king and said, “Oh king, last day I had a dream. In the dream, God appeared and said the king will die within 3 months.”
On hearing this, king got shocked.

“I can’t believe this. You are telling lie.” king shouted.

“No. I am telling the truth. You can hang me if you don’t die within 3 months. ", replied the priest.

He added. "In the dream, God told me that there is only one way to extend your life to some more days. If you catch a sparrow by yourself, your life will get extended for some more days. But you should try only one hour every day to catch the sparrow.”

The king said,“ If my life get some extension, I am ready to do so. But if I find that you are telling lie, I will hang you.”

The priest agreed.
The priest stayed with the king in his palace. 

Every day the king tried to catch a sparrow. But he couldn't. He did that every day for one hour. The king was so sad to hear that he was going to die soon. He lost interest in everything.

After 3 months, the king called the priest and said, “You failed !!. It's already 3 months and I am still alive. I am going to hang you.”

Then the priest smiled at the king and said, “Are you going to Hang me? I thought you are going to give me the reward you offered.” 

“Reward? For what?” asked the king.

The priest replied, “Please look at yourself in the mirror. You became so slim within 3 months. Whatever I said and asked you to do, was my treatment to make you slim.” 

The king was surprised and happy. He gave the reward to the priest.

The priest also requested to release the doctor from the jail.
The king did so and he lived happily and healthy thereafter.

Farmer and his donkey

One day a farmer and his son were going to sell their donkey in the market. On the way, they heard some ladies talking about them. One of the women said loudly, “Why they are walking when they have a donkey to carry them.” 

 Hearing this, the farmer asked his son to ride on the donkey and they went on their way.

On their way, they heard a group of men talking about them. One man said loudly, “The young and healthy boy is riding on donkey while his old father is walking all the way.  Nowadays young people have no respect to their elders.”

Hearing this, the farmer asked his son to get down and he climbed up on the donkey and they went on their way.

On their way, they heard a group of children talking about them. One of the children said loudly, “How the farmer can ride like this, while his child is walking all the way.”

Hearing this, the farmer asked his son to get on the donkey. Thus they both started riding on the donkey.

On their way,  a man stopped them and said “How you can ride on this poor animal like this. He is already tired by carrying both of you. You should carry him.”

Hearing this, the farmer and his son jumped down and tied the legs of the donkey with heavy rope. They turned the donkey upside down and tied it to long pole. Thus they continued their journey by carrying the donkey.

On their way, they heard a crowd of people roaring and shouting with laughter. They clapped their hands to see this funny show. The donkey became so uncomfortable. He was already tired of the entire upside down journey. When he heard the loud noises, he became nervous. He wiggled and jiggled to get free. When they were halfway across the bridge, then the rope which held him broke and the donkey fell down into the river.

Moral:: When you try to please everyone, you please no one at all.