MORAL STORIES FOR LEP BASED TEACHING

Fear
There was a lion who feared nothing except the crowing of cocks. A chill would go down his spine whenever he heard a cock crowing.
One day he confessed his fear to the elephant, who was greatly amused.
“How can the crowing of a cock hurt you?” he asked the lion. “Think about it!”
Just then a mosquito began circling the elephant’s head, frightening him out of his wits.
“If it gets into my ear I’m doomed!” he shrieked, flailing at the insect with his trunk.
Now it was the lion’s turn to feel amused.

Moral: If we could see our fears as others see them we would realise that most of our fears make no sense!
Filling a Sieve with Water
The Teacher had given a discourse on creative thinking. Afterwards his disciples approached him and asked him to set them a problem that required them to think creatively. The sage gave them a sieve and asked them to fill it with water at the sea, nearby. They were gone for a long time. Finally he went down to the beach to see what they were doing, and found them seated morosely around the sieve.
They scrambled to their feet when they saw him.
“You’ve set us an impossible task, sir,” said the oldest of the disciples. “It’s just not possible to fill a sieve with water.”
“Are you sure?” asked the Teacher, picking up the sieve. “Sometimes it helps to step back and view the problem from a different angle.”
He waded into the water and threw the sieve far out into the sea. It sank.
“There!” said the Teacher. “It’s full of water now.”
Cycle of Evil
There was once a king who was so cruel and unjust that his subjects yearned for his death or dethronement.
However, one day he surprised them all by announcing that he had decided to turn over a new leaf.
“No more cruelty, no more injustice,” he promised, and he was as good as his word. He became known as the ‘Gentle Monarch’.
Months after his transformation one of his ministers plucked up enough courage to ask him what had brought about his change of heart, and the king answered:
“As I was galloping through my forests I caught sight of a fox being chased by a hound. The fox escaped into his hole but not before the hound had bitten into its leg and lamed it for life. Later I rode into a village and saw the same hound there. It was barking at a man. Even as I watched, the man picked up a huge stone and flung it at the dog, breaking its leg. The man had not gone far when he was kicked by a horse. His knee was shattered and he fell to the ground, disabled for life. The horse began to run but it fell into a hole and broke its leg. Reflecting on all that had happened, I thought: ‘Evil begets evil. If I continue in my evil ways, I will surely be overtaken by evil’. So I decided to change”.
The minister went away convinced that the time was ripe to overthrow the king and seize the throne. Immersed in thought, he did not see the steps in front of him and fell, breaking his neck.
The Camel and His Friends
Once a merchant was leading a caravan of heavily-laden camels through a jungle when one of them, overcome by fatigue, collapsed. The farmer decided to leave the camel in the jungle and go on his way. Later, when the camel recovered his strength, he realized that he was alone in a strange jungle. Fortunately there was plenty of grass, and he survived.
One day the king of the jungle, a lion, arrived along with his three friends -- a leopard, a fox, and a crow. The king lion wondered what the camel was doing in the jungle! He came near the camel and asked how he, a creature of the desert, had ended up in the hostile jungle. The camel tearfully explained what happened. The lion took pity on him and said, "You have nothing to fear now. Henceforth, you are under my protection and can stay with us." The camel began to live happily in the jungle.
Then one day the lion was wounded in a fight with an elephant. He retired to his cave and stayed there for several days. His friends came to offer their sympathy. They tried to catch prey for the hungry lion but failed. The camel had no problem as he lived on grass while the others were starving.
The fox came up with a plan. He secretly went to the lion and suggested that the camel be sacrificed for the good of the others. The lion got furious, "I can never kill an animal who is under my protection."
The fox humbly said, "But Lord, you have provided us food all the time. If any one of us voluntarily offered himself to save your life, I hope you won't mind!" The hungry lion did not object to that and agreed to take the offer.
The fox went back to his companions and said, "Friends, our king is dying of starvation. Let us go and beg him to eat one of us. It is the least we can do for such a noble soul."
So they went to the king and the crow offered his life. The fox interrupted, and said, "You are a small creature, the master's hunger will hardly be appeased by eating you. May I humbly offer my life to satisfy my master's hunger."
The leopard stepped forward and said, "You are no bigger than the crow, it is me whom our master should eat."
The foolish camel thought, "Everyone has offered to lay down their lives for the king, but he has not hurt any one. It is now my turn to offer myself." So he stepped forward and said, "Stand aside friend leopard, the king and you have close family ties. It is me whom the master must eat."
An ominous silence greeted the camel's offer. Then the king gladly said, "I accept your offer, O noble camel." And in no time he was killed by the three rogues, the false friends."
Moral: Be careful in choosing your friends.
Saint and Sinner
Anastasius was abbot of a monastery in Egypt. The monastery had a large collection of books, one among them being a rare volume, worth a fortune.
One day a visiting monk chanced upon the book and succumbing to temptation walked away with it. The theft was discovered the same day and it was not hard to guess who the culprit was but Anastasius refused to send anyone after the monk for fear that he might say he had not taken it and add the sin of perjury to that of theft.
The monk meanwhile was trying to sell the book and eventually found a buyer, a rich man who asked him to leave the book with him for a day so that he could get it evaluated.
When the monk had gone, the man hastened to the monastery and showed the book to Anastasius. The abbot recognized it instantly but did not say anything.
“A monk wants to sell it to me,” said his visitor. “He’s asking for a gold sovereign. You are knowledgeable about books. Is this book worth that much?”
“It’s worth much much more than a sovereign,” said the abbot. “It’s a valuable book.”
The man thanked the abbot and left. The next day when the monk came, he informed him that he would like to buy the book and was prepared to pay the price he had mentioned. The monk was overjoyed.
“Whom did you show it to?” he asked.
“Anastasius, the abbot.”
His visitor turned pale. “A-And what did he say?”
“He said the book was worth a sovereign.”
“And what else?”
“Nothing.”
The monk was both amazed and touched. He realized that the abbot had refused to reclaim his lost treasure so that he, the thief would not get into trouble. Nobody had ever shown him such love; nobody had ever behaved so nobly towards him.
“I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to sell it,” he said and took the book from the man.
“I’ll give you two sovereigns,” said the customer.
The monk walked away without answering. He went directly to the monastery and handed the book to the abbot, tears brimming in his eyes.
“Keep it,” said Anastasius. “When I learnt you had borrowed it I decided to give it to you.”
“Please take it back,” pleaded the monk, “but let me stay here and learn wisdom from you.”
His wish was granted. He spent the rest of his years in the monastery modelling his life after that of the saintly Anastasius.
Headstrong Companion
Once upon a time there lived a Bharunda, a bird with two heads. One day it found a strange fruit on the seashore. It picked it up and started eating it. The head that was feeding, exclaimed, "Many a sweet fruit tossed by the sea have I eaten, but this beats them all! Is it the fruit of a sandalwood tree or that of the divine parijata?"
Hearing this, the other head asked to taste the fruit, but the first head refused, saying, "We have a common stomach, so there's no need for you to eat it too. I'll give it to our sweetheart, the Bharundi," and with that, it tossed the half-eaten fruit to the female.
From that day on, the second head carried a grudge against the first and waited for an opportunity to take revenge. One day it found a poison fruit. Picking up the fruit, it said to the first head, "You selfish wretch! See, here's a poison fruit and I'm going to eat it!"
"Don't do that, you fool!" shrieked the first head, "you'll kill us both!"
But the second head would not listen. It consumed the poison and soon the two-headed bird was dead.
Moment of Truth
There was a young student-archer who reached such proficiency in his art that he could shoot an arrow into a tree and then cleave that arrow into two with the next shot. He began to boast that he was a greater archer than his guru.
One day his guru, a venerable old man in his 70's, asked the youth to accompany him on a trip across the hills. The journey was uneventful until they came to a deep chasm.
A single log spanned the chasm. The guru walked down to the centre of the log, unshouldered his bow and taking an arrow shot it into a tree on the other side. His next shot cleaved the first arrow into two.
"Now it's your turn," he said, walking back to where his student was standing.
The youth stepped gingerly on the log and very slowly and carefully made his way to the middle. But his heart was in his mouth. He knew that if he lost his footing, he would plunge to his death. His hands trembled as he strung an arrow into his bow. Preoccupied with the danger he was in, he found it hard to focus on the target. Consequently when he let go of the arrow, it missed the tree altogether. Whimpering, he turned around.
"Help me!" he shouted to his guru. "I'll fall!"
The old man walked up to him, took his hand and stepping backwards led him to safety. Neither of them said a word on the return journey but the boy had much to think about. He had realised that to be a master of his art it was not enough to know how to control the bow, he had to learn how to control his mind too.
The Three Dolls
A sage presented a prince with a set of three small dolls. The prince was not amused.
"Am I a girl that you give me dolls?" he asked.
"This is a gift for a future king," said the man. "If you look carefully, you'll see a hole in the ear of each doll."
"So?"
The sage handed him a piece of string.
"Pass it through each doll," he said.
Intrigued, the prince picked up the first doll and put the string into the ear.
It came out from the other ear.
"This is one type of person," said the man. "Whatever you tell him, comes out from the other ear. He doesn't retain anything."
The prince put the string into the second doll. It came out from the mouth.
"This is the second type of person," said the man. "Whatever you tell him, he tells everybody else."
The prince picked up the third doll and repeated the process. The string did not reappear from anywhere else.
"This is the third type of person," said the man. "Whatever you tell him is locked up within him. It never comes out."
"What is the best type of person?" asked the prince.
The man handed him a fourth doll, in answer.
When the prince put the string into the doll, it came out from the other ear.
"Do it again," said the sage. The prince repeated the process. This time the string came out from the mouth. When he put the string in a third time, it did not come out at all.
"This is the best type of person," said the sage. "To be trustworthy, a man must know when not to listen, when to remain silent and when to speak out."
The Miserly Beggar
The king was to pass by a beggar's hut and the man was beside himself with excitement, not because he was about to see the king but because the king was known to part with expensive jewels and huge sums of money when moved by compassion.
He saw the king's chariot just as a kindly man was filling his begging bowl with uncooked rice. Pushing the man aside, he ran into the street, shouting praises of the king and the royal family.
The chariot stopped and the king beckoned to the beggar.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"One of the most unfortunate of your subjects," said the beggar. "Poverty sits on my doorstep and follows me about like a dog. I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon!"
"Have you nothing for your king except a tale of woe?" said the ruler, putting out his hand. "Give me something."
The beggar, astonished, carefully picked up 5 grains of rice from his bowl and laid them on the king's outstretched palm.
The king drove away. The beggar's disappointment was great. He raved and ranted and cursed the king again and again for his miserliness. Finally, his anger spent, he went on his rounds.
When he returned home in the evening he found a bag of rice on the floor.
"Some generous soul has been here," he thought and took out a handful of rice from the bag. To his astonishment there was a small piece of gold in it. He realised then that the bag had been sent by the king. He emptied the rice on the floor, feeling sure there would be more gold pieces in it, and he was right. He found 5, one for each grain of rice he had given the king.
"It is not the king who has been miserly," thought the man, sadly. "If I had been generous and given him the whole bowl of rice, I would have been a rich man today."
Be Wary of Advice
There was a withered tree standing in the corner of a man's backyard.

"It's unlucky to keep a withered tree," said his neighbour.
"Cut it down before something unpleasant happens."
The man cut down the tree.
His neighbor came with his two sons and asked for and dragged away the branches for fuel.
"All he wanted was the wood," thought the owner of the tree, ruefully.
"Cutting down the tree may not improve my luck, but it has certainly benefited him."
The Stone in the Desert
An Arab while crossing a desert came across a huge rock half buried in the sand. Scrawled on the boulder was this inscription:

TURN ME OVER AND YOU WILL BENEFIT FROM IT
The Arab felt sure there was a great treasure hidden beneath it and worked mightily to turn it over.
He succeeded after several hours. But there was no treasure there, only an inscription on the underside of the rock. The Inscription Was

GREED IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL REMEMBER THIS AND YOU WILL BE A BETTER MAN.
Cows and Cucumbers
Gopal Bhar lived next door to a poor couple who had a habit of day-dreaming.
One day the husband said to his wife: "If I had some money I would buy a few cows."
"Then we would have a lot of milk," said his wife. "I could make plenty of butter and ghee and we could send some milk to my sister too."
"Send milk to your sister!" exclaimed her husband. "How dare you suggest such a thing!"
"But we would have milk to spare," said his wife.
"We'll sell it!" said her husband. "I don't want any more talk on the subject and to make sure you don't carry milk to her when I'm away, I'm going to break every pot in the house!" And picking up the four or five pots they had, smashed them on the floor.
Gopal Bhar who was passing by at that time, asked him why he was breaking the pots and when he learnt the reason picked up a stick and started beating the air with it.
"What are you doing?!" asked his neighbour, puzzled.
"Driving away your cows!" said Gopal. "They've eaten the cucumbers in my garden."
"Eaten you cucumbers!" exclaimed the other man, indignantly. "But you don't even have a garden!"
"I'm going to have one soon," said Gopal, "and I'm going to grow cucumbers in it," and he began hitting out with the stick again.
The neighbours finally realised that Bhar was trying to show them how foolish it was to live in a world of make-believe and felt ashamed of themselves.
The Wise Old Man
A wealthy man requested an old scholar to wean his son away from his bad habits.
The scholar took the youth for a stroll through a garden. Stopping suddenly he asked the boy to pull out a tiny plant growing there. The youth held the plant between his thumb and forefinger and pulled it out. The old man then asked him to pull out a slightly bigger plant. The youth pulled hard and the plant came out, roots and all.
"Now pull out that one," said the old man pointing to a bush. The boy had to use all his strength to pull it out.
"Now take this one out," said the old man, indicating a guava tree. The youth grasped the trunk and tried to pull it out. But it would not budge.
"I – It's impossible," said the boy, panting with the effort.
"So it is with bad habits," said the sage. "When they are young it is easy to pull them out but when they take hold they cannot be uprooted."
The session with the old man changed the boy's life.
An Ascetic Returns Home
A young ascetic sitting in meditation under a tree was splattered by the droppings of a bird.

He looked up angrily at the culprit and such was the intensity of his wrath that the bird was reduced to ash.

His concentration disturbed, the ascetic got up and went in search of food. He knocked at the door of a house but there was no answer. He knocked again and the lady of the house shouted that she was coming. Presently she came out with food and seeing that he was annoyed at having had to wait so long, smiled and said: "Please don't try to burn me with your angry glance like you did that bird. My dharma as a housewife is first to take care of the needs of my family before attending to the needs of others."

The ascetic realised that she was no ordinary woman and was ashamed of himself. He asked her to teach him what dharma was. She said he should see Dharma Vyadha.

The ascetic went in search of Dharma Vyadha expecting to find a venerable sage but the man turned out to be a meatseller.

Dharma Vyadha made him wait while he served his customers. When the ascetic showed signs of impatience, the meatseller smiled and said: "Just as the woman's first duty was to her family, my first duty is to my customers."

So the ascetic waited. When the last of his customers had gone, the meatseller turned to the ascetic and invited him home.

When they reached Dharma Vyadha's house the ascetic was again made to wait while his host lovingly attended to his parents. It was quite some time before the meatseller could return to his guest but the young man showed no trace of anger. A transformation had come over him.

"Now I know what dharma is," he said, rising and bowing to the meatseller.

Giving up the path of asceticism he returned home and begged forgiveness of his parents for having deserted them in their old age.

"I seek your blessings," he said, "to give me strength to do my dharma."
The Night Raider
One day Dala Tarwadi's wife told her husband she would like to make brinjal sambhar and asked him to get a brinjal. Dala Tarwadi stole into Vasaram Bhuvo's field where brinjals grew in abundance. But he did not just take one and run. He was a man of integrity and felt that he should ask permission to take the vegetables. So crouching beside the brinjal plants he whispered:

"Field, field, may I take a brinjal?"

Then answering for the field replied: "Why just one, dear Tarwadi? Take ten or twelve."

Then he took a dozen brinjals and sneaked out of the field. A few days later he raided the field again. And then once more.

The owner of the field, Vasaram Bhuvo, a giant of a man and the most hard-working farmer in the village realised that somebody was stealing his brinjals and began to keep a watch on his field. One night he saw Tarwadi sneak in and followed him. Tarwadi, unaware that he had an audience, as usual asked for and gave himself permission to take the brinjals. But before he could touch them, Vasaram caught hold to him and carried him away. He dumped him at the edge of a pond.

"Pond, pond," said Vasaram, "how many times should I dip this wretch into your water?"

And answering for the pond, replied: "Not just once, dear Bhuvo. Dip him into it a hundred or two hundred times or more."

When Tarwadi staggered home later that night he was soaking wet --but he was cured of his thieving ways for ever.
Crooked Howler
A thief hired a room at an inn and stayed there at night. The next morning when he looked out of his window he saw the owner of the inn sitting in the courtyard. The man was wearing an expensive new coat which the thief decided would look good on himself.
Accordingly he went out and sitting beside the innkeeper, struck up a conversation with him. Presently he yawned and then to the innkeeper's astonishment, howled like a wolf.
"Why did you do that?" asked the innkeeper.
"I have no control over it," said the thief. "If I yawn three times I actually turn into a wolf. Please don't leave me. I'm frightened!" And with that he yawned again and let out another howl. The innkeeper turned pale and got up to go but the thief caught hold of his coat and begged him to stay. Even as he pleaded, he yawned again. The terrified innkeeper wriggled out of the coat to which the thief was tightly holding on and ran into the inn and locked himself in. The thief calmly put on the coat and walked away.
The Three-legged Chicken.
One day a traveling salesman was driving down a back country road at about 30 miles an hour when he noticed that there was a three legged chicken running along beside his car. He stepped on the gas but at 50 miles per hr. he chicken was still keeping up. After about a mile of running the chicken ran up a farm lane and into a barn behind an old farm house. The salesman had some time to kill so he turned around and drove up the farm lane. He knocked at the door and when the farmer answered he told him what he had just seen. The farmer said that he knew about the chicken, as a matter of fact the farmer said that his son was a geneticist and he had developed this breed of chicken because the three of them each like a drumstick when they have chicken and this way they only have to kill one chicken. The salesman said 'That's the most fantastic story I have ever heard. How do they taste?' The farmer said ' I don't know. We can't catch'em.'