FOUR SHORT STORIES
(Compilation by: Sandeep
Shah)
1. A Pound of Butter
Once, there was a farmer who regularly sold
butter to a baker. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he
was getting the exact amount that he asked for. He found out that he wasn’t, so
he took the farmer to court.
The
judge asked the farmer if he uses any measure to weigh the butter. The farmer
replied, “Your Honor, I’m primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do
have a scale.”
The
farmer replied; “Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from
me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day, when the
baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in
butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it’s the baker.”
2. The Butterfly
Once
upon a time, a man found a butterfly that was starting to hatch from its
cocoon. He sat down and watched the butterfly for hours as it struggled to
force itself through a tiny hole. Then, it suddenly stopped making progress and
looked like it was stuck.
Therefore,
the man decided to help the butterfly out.
He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The
butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small,
shriveled wings.
The
man thought nothing of it, and he sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to
support the butterfly. However, that never happened. The butterfly spent the
rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with small wings and a swollen
body.
Despite
the man’s kind heart, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the
struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small hole
were God’s way of
forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings to prepare itself
for flying once it was free.
Moral of the
story: Our struggles in life help to develop our strengths. Without struggles,
we never grow and get stronger, so it’s important for us to tackle
challenges on our own, and not rely on help from
others all the time.
3. An Old Man Lived in the Village
An
old man lived in the village. The whole village was tired of him; he was always
gloomy, he constantly complained and was always in a bad mood. The
longer he lived, the viler he became and more poisonous were his words. People
did their best to avoid him because his misfortune was contagious. He created
the feeling of unhappiness in others.
But
one day, when he turned eighty, an incredible thing happened. Instantly
everyone started hearing the rumor: “The old man is happy today, he doesn’t
complain about anything, smiles, and
even his face is freshened up.”
The
whole village gathered around the man and asked him, “What happened to you?”
The
old man replied, “Nothing special. Eighty years I’ve been chasing happiness and
it was useless. And then I decided to live without happiness and just enjoy
life. That’s why I’m happy now.”
Moral of the story: Don’t
chase happiness. Enjoy your life.
4. The Wise Man
People
visit a wise man complaining
about the same problems over and over again. One day, he decided to tell them a
joke and they all roared with laughter.
After
a few minutes, he told them the same joke and only a few of them smiled.
Then
he told the same joke for a third time, but no one laughed or smiled anymore.
The
wise man smiled and said: “You can’t laugh at the same joke over and over. So
why are you always crying about the same problem?”
Moral of the story: Worrying
won’t solve your problems; it’ll just waste your time and energy
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