Terry Pratchett said, “People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it’s the other way around.” Stories with a moral have a unique way of shaping how we think and reflect our human experiences. Since childhood, we have all been drawn toward stories, especially bedtime stories while growing up. Jonathan Hadith, a famous psychologist, said that human minds are “story processors”, not “logic processors”.
As kids, we grew up listening to fables where we were taught about honesty, resilience, and kindness. Now standing with time, we still need to remind ourselves of all the life’s qualities we learned for survival. Let’s take a look at some of the stories, fables, and parables that are both entertaining and enlightening.
1. The Tortoise and the Hare
Growing up all of us have been narrated this fable by our elders, we all had that colorful book with images known as Aesop’s fables. One of the most widely shared stories from that is the short story of the tortoise and the hare.
A rapidly moving hare challenged a slow-moving tortoise to prove that the hare could win the race easily. The tortoise accepted the challenge and the race began, the hare looked back and found out that the tortoise was far behind. So, the hare saw this as an opportunity and took a nap. To his surprise, when he woke up he saw the tortoise already won the race despite moving slowly and steadily. Now as a kid, it was unbelievable to fathom that the tortoise would have ever won the race but the ending was indeed like a climax for a toddler’s brain.
The moral of the story: Slowly and steadily one can win life’s greatest hurdle.
2. The Lion and the Mouse
Another one of the most favorite if not favorite is the short story of the Lion and the Mouse. Lion and the Mouse is Aesop’s fable yet again which brings the most fascinating moral and principle to abide by in today’s world.
A mighty big lion caught a mouse and made up his mind to eat it because the mouse disturbed the lion’s sleep. But the mouse worried about his life begged forgiveness from the lion and to a surprise the lion let free the mouse. A few days go by, and the lion is hunted by a few humans, hearing the lion roar, the mouse recalls the act of clemency offered by the lion that day and rushed to help the lion. The Rat gnawed the ropes and let the lion free.
The moral of the story: Kindness is a great gesture and no amount of it can ever go to waste.
3. The Fox and the Grapes
Another timeless tale of the old times is The Fox and the Grapes, the principle of this short story is extremely applicable in today’s time.
A hungry fox saw some grapes and driven by hunger, he tried to get hold of the grapes. He jumped with all the strength his body had but was unable to reach the tree, he said “The grapes are not even ripe yet” and he did not want sour grapes.
The moral of the story: It is easier to hate something when you are unable to achieve it rather than working for it relentlessly.
4. Two Little Mice
Two Little Mice is one of the morally based short stories that teaches kids to know what constant trying means or what perseverance equates to.
So, two little mice accidentally tumbled inside a bucket full of cream. Now ideally both should strive harder to get out of it. But one mouse gave up and drowned inside the bucket and on the other hand the other mouse kept trying to get out of it and not letting himself drown there. The mouse used its brain and churned the cream into butter. Later on, it was easy for the mouse to get out of that bucket.
The moral of the story: There will be tough times in life where we will be clueless but simply sinking into it would serve us no purpose.
5. The Shepherd’s Boy and the Wolf
This is another of the most interesting short stories from Aesop’s fables which tells us about stories with a moral and talks about how “lying” is the biggest sin.
The story begins when a shepherd’s boy watching a flock of sheep, faked his cry for help and disturbed the entire village by screaming, “Wolf! Wolf!” hearing his desperate cries, the villagers quickly rushed in for help and upon arrival, the boy laughed at the villagers and made a fool out of them. The boy repeated this same incident 3 to 4 times and every single time the villagers dropped by thinking this time it was serious. One fine day, A wolf indeed came and the boy screamed for help and was alarmed to his core but this time no villager came to help him and the wolf destroyed the entire flock.
The moral of the story: When you keep on lying, there will come a day when no one will believe you even when you are speaking the truth.
6. The Blind Men and the Elephant
This short story talks about the principle of objectivity. The parable mostly talks about how human beings limit their claims based on subjective experiences.
This is a story about a group of blind men, who found out that their town had welcomed an elephant. Despite not knowing what an elephant looks like they thought of going to meet an elephant and imagine it by simply touching it. Each man started feeling different parts of the elephant’s body and started describing it. In some instances, they come into brawls because they think that the other person is dishonest.
The moral of the story: The tendency to limit our subjective experiences only to what we have experienced and dismissing every other claim as dishonest is detrimental to one’s growth.
7. The Ant and the Grasshopper
The Ant and the Grasshopper is a timeless fable by Aesop Fables that talks about the qualities and morals of hard work and being prepared.
Set in a warm summer, a family of ants were busy gathering grains for winter to store because of the harsh winter that was about to come. To not stay hungry during winters the ants worked hard and stored the grain. While the grasshopper on the other hand kept on playing around and singing and wasting time leisurely. Later on, when winter arrived the grasshopper realized that he had not stored any food for winter but rather kept wasting his time throughout the summer. The grasshopper had no food to eat while the ants had plenty.
The moral of the story: Always set a time for leisure activities and time for serious work because hard work always pays off.
8. The Ugly Duckling
The ugly duckling teaches us the moral of how physical appearance is a very materialistic approach to life rather one should consider the journey of life.
The story unfolds with the journey of a duckling who has been bullied throughout his life by his kin. The duckling has faced massive bullying just because of his physical appearance, tired of it he even left his home and spent many days and winters in solitude, cursing him for the way he looked. One fine day, he mixed with a group of beautiful swans which he was initially scared of, and saw how the swans accepted him. Upon looking into the water he saw the reflection of a swan in himself and started feeling good about it.
The moral of the story: The journey of self-acceptance is very important and one should not make judgments on other people’s life if they don’t know about the journey.
9. The Goose that Laid Golden Eggs
Yet another timeless fable by Aesops brings us back to the nostalgic memory lane. This short story talks about the principle of staying content with life and whatever it has to provide you.
A farmer and his wife have a goose that lays golden eggs every day, to their surprise a thought struck them where they thought that maybe by killing the goose they might get rich sooner as they will find out a lot of golden eggs inside her. So they cut her open and found nothing inside it. This not only led to the killing of the goose but also had no profitable outcome. By simply killing the goose they deprived themselves of whatever fortune they used to make.
The moral of the story: Too much greed always leads to the path of destruction.
10. The Clever Crow
The clever crow is one of those nighttime stories that you tell your kids so that they wake up and imbibe the principle that every problem has a solution.
A crow was flying across a vast sky on a summer afternoon and got thirsty. To quench his thirst he started searching for water all around. After searching for a while, the crow stumbled upon a jug and saw that there was some water. The jug was narrow so the crow was unable to drink it, but it didn’t give up. She thought for a while of ideas to reach the water. After a while, she started collecting small stones and threw them inside the jug. The water level rose up and she drank the water and left.
The moral of the story: Every problem has a solution, you just need to strive harder.
11. The Elephant and the Tailor
This short story presents us with the moral of treating everyone with kindness. This bedtime story helps the children to learn how only kindness in this world backs you up.
There lived an elephant who frequently visited a tailor’s shop after taking a dip in a pond. Almost everyday, the elephant used to go to the tailor’s shop and greet him while the tailor used to offer a banana in return. But one fine day, the tailor was in a bad mood and as a result, when the elephant came, the tailor pricked him with a pin. The elephant started sobbing while the tailor laughed. Now, one day, the elephant went and took a dip in muddy water and started walking towards the tailor, the elephant went and splashed the muddy water through his trunk on the tailor. The tailor later realised that what the elephant did was the right thing because he had also behaved in a bad way a few days back.
The moral of the story: Kindness does not cost you a penny but being ungrateful does.
12. The Monkey and the Crocodile
This Aesop fable talks about the story of survival, which is extremely important in contemporary times.
In a large forest, lived many animals. Among them, the crocodile’s wife conveyed that she wants to eat a monkey’s heart because she has heard from other people that a monkey’s heart is delicious. Upon listening to his wife’s desire, the crocodile befriended a monkey and lured the monkey to make him fall into his trap. But the monkey was a clever fellow who outsmarted the crocodile. The monkey successfully fooled the crocodile and escaped for his dear life.
The moral of the story: Wisdom will help you get through all the trouble and another thing is never trust any stranger.
13. The Dog and the Reflection
One of the favorite tales of Aesop fable is the short story of the dog and the reflection which teaches us the principle of how greed can make us lose even the things we have.
Once upon a time, a dog won a bone from a butcher, he was very happy and started twirling back to his home. The dog was roaming around and saw and came across a narrow footbridge across that, he saw a small pond and he saw his reflection but the dog mistook it and thought that there was a dog who had a bigger bone than his. So, he sprang into the water and later on cried for his dear life and even lost the bone he had won.
The moral of the story: Be content with whatever you have in life, too much greed even makes us lose the precious things we already have.
Conclusion
These 13 short stories with a moral teach us life’s big lessons in the smallest of spaces. Sometimes we sho not have enough time to read a fat novel but these bite-sized Aesop fables, parables, and short stories are gems that offer us the perfect combination of insight and inspiration. All these stories teach us morals and principles that hold significance even in today’s time. Go ahead and read them if you are ever in need of a little guidance. The type of moral and life lesson you are looking for could just be a page away.
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