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Long ago in China, at a time when girls were expected to stay at home and learn household work , while the boys went to school, a girl named Zhu conceived a desire to study.

Her family was wealthy and Zhu was pampered but her father did not want to go against tradition. When she pestered him he told her if she got admission into a school he would not stop her from studying. He was confident that no school would admit a girl.

But Zhu was resourceful. She disguised herself as a boy and managed to get admission into a school in the city of Hangzhou, where her aunt lived.

Every morning she would put on her disguise and go to school.

There was a boy named Liang in her class. The two were drawn to each other, and in course of time became good friends. As the months and the years passed they beacme inseperatable companions, and Zhu realised that she was in love.

She wanted to stay with Liang the rest of her life. She thought of a plan. She told Liang that when they finished school, and he had got a job he should come to her house and aske her father for her sister’s hand.

Liang readily agreed. He too did not want to lose Zhu. If he married her sister they could continue to meet.

After finishing school, Liang lost no time in taking up a job , and when he had saved enough to get married he hastened to Zhu’s house.

Zhu saw him coming , and was overjoyed. It was a year since they had parted and she had missed him terribly. Unable to restrain herself she rushed out shouting , ” I’m your friend , as you can see I’m a girl , I cannot live without you !”

Liang was dazed by the revelation but soon recovered and caught Zhu in a warm embrace. Suddenly everything had fallen into place. Now he knew why he had felt such a strong love for Zhu.

Zhu took him to her father who listened attentively to what Liang had to say, but when the young man asked for Zhu’s hand , he shook his head.

He told Liang that Zhu had already been promised to another man, a wealthy merchant. Nothing that Liang said could make Zhu’s father change his mind.

Liang left, shattered. He felt frighteningly alone. The thought that he would never see Zhu again filled him with pain. On the way, he collapsed and died.

When Zhu learnt of Liang’s death she lost all desire to continue living. She pretended to agree to the marriage arranged for her on condition that the wedding procession passed by Liang’s grave.

As the wedding procession neared the cemetry the wind began to howl and the sky grew dark. Zhu jumped down from her palanquin and rushing to Liang’s grave threw herself on it, sobbing uncontrollably.

A peal of thunder suddenly rent the air. The next moment , a bolt of thundering hit the grave, breaking it open, Zhu lept into it.

the storm subsided as quickly as it had started. When Zhu’s relatives reached the grave and peered into it, all they saw at first was an empty coffin. then out flew two butterflies, dancing as if they could not believe they were together.

And as the people standing around the grave watched in fascination and bewilderment the two lovely butterflies flew out of sight.

Once Akbar wanted to test his courtiers. He put a question to all of them. Akbar asked ” What is the thing that travels fastest in the world?”

One of the courtiers said ” Sound” . Another said ” wind “. Yet another said ” Light”. akbar was waiting for Birbal’s answer. birbal said ” Your majesty! the thoughts in the mind are the fastest to travel. In a moment you are in this court and your next thought can be anywhere else in this world. So thought is the fastest thing in the world.” Everyone was very surprised a Birbal wisdom. Akbar was proud of Birbal’s Wisdom and rewarded him suitably.

One day two merchants named Sam and Martin came to the Akbar’s court. Sam spoke first. He said ” Your Majesty! This is my friend Martin. I had given my treasure before going on business work to another town. After returning from there when I ask him to return that,he says that I never gave him anything.”

Martin said” No your Majesty! You can check my house, Sam never gave me any treasure. He is lying.”

Akbar ordered his soldiers to check Martin’s house in the evening. the soldiers did not find anything. Sam and Martin were again in the court the next day. Akbar said ” We could not find anything in Martin’s house. So, Sam must be lying.” Birbal was listening and said ” Your Majesty! Give me a chance to solve this case. Actually I have found the treasure and I have kept in my house. I will submit it in the court tomorrow.” Every one was surprised. the court was adjourned. Sam and Martin left to their respective houses. Birbal asked the soldiers to follow Martin in disguise. Martin went home and after somtime he came out. He went into a forest and dug a place near a big Banyan tree. He took out a big bag in which there were ornaments. Immediately the soldiers arrested him..

they produced him in the court before the king. Birbal said ” Your Majesty ! Yesterday I lied to you. I did not find any treasure. I wanted to find out whether Martin was innocent. but, when I said so Martin became anxious and went and checked the place for treasure where he had really hidden the treasure. So please arrest Martin and handover this treasure to Sam.” Akbar was very happy with Birbal.

The King , was a proud and stern man, feared by all his subjects. One day while sitting in his mud palace, surrounded by fawning courtiers and watched by a multitude of people who come to see him, he was suddenly overcome by a sense of grandeur and loudly declared that he was master of the world and that all men were his servants.

” You are mistaken,” said a frail voice. ” All men are servants of one another.”

A deathly silence followed the remark. The blood froze in the veins of the people assembled there. Then the king exploded in anger.

” Who said that!” he demanded, rising from the royal stool.” Who dares suggest that I am a servant!!”

” I do,” said a voice in the crowd, and the people parted to reveal a white-haired old man. leaning heavily on a stout stick.

” Who are you?” asked the king.

” Iam Bouba.” said the man. ” We have no water in our village. I have come to ask for a well to be dug there.”

” So you are a beggar ! ” roared the king, striding down to where the man stood. ” Yet you have the temerity to call me a servant!”

” We all serve one another,” said Bouba, showing no fear, ” and I will prove it to you before nightfall.”

” Do that,” said the monarch. ” Force me to wait on you. If you can do that I will have not one but three wells dug in your village. But if you fail, you’ll lose your head!”

” In our village,” said the old man, ” When we accept a challenge, we touch the person’s feet. Let me touch your feet. Hold my stick.”

The king took the stick and the old man bent down and touched the monarch’s feet.

” Now you may give it back to me.” he said, strightening up. The king gave him back his stick.

” Do you want any more proof?” asked Bouba.

” Proof?” asked the king, bewildered.

” You held my stick when I asked you to and gave it back to me when I asked you for it,” said the old man. ” As I said , all good men are servants of one another.”

The king was so pleased with Bouba’s wit and daring that he not only had wells dug in his village but also retained him as an adviser.

There was an old Iranian who was intensely proud of two things- his long , white beard that reached down to his chest, and his ability to sleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

One day, his 3 year old grandson asked him how he arranged his beard when he slept: did it go under the blanket or did it remain above it?

The Old man had never paid attention to this detail, and he confessed he didn’t remember whether his beard remained above or went under the blanket. He promised to find out.

It was very cold that night. The old man got into bed and pulled the blanket over himself. Then he suddenly remembered his grandson’s question.

He became acutely consicious that his beard was under the blanket. He lifted it from under the blanket, and placed it above it. This made him feel that something was not quite right. So he tucked the beard under the blanket again. But he soon felt it would be better if it were out. In and out went the beard; first under the blanket, then above it, then under once again. The old man spent sleepless night.

The next morning the first thing he did was cut his beard to chin level, to the great joy of his daughter who, for several months, had been urging him to do just that.

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 sage.” 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 through the mouth.

” This is the second type of person.” said the sage. ” 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.”

Once upon a time there lived a bird with two heads. One day it found a strange fruit on the sea shore.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.” 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.

There was once a king who was so cruel and unjust that his subjects yearned for his death or dethronement.

However, oneday 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 answere:

” As I was galloping through my forests I caught sight of a fox being chased by a hound. The fox excaped into a 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 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. It I continue in my evil ways, I will surely be overtaken by eveil’. 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.

Based on a story in the ” Tales of Bidpai”, an Arabic version of the Panchatantra

So little Bridget took the baby on her right arm and a jug in her left hand, and went to the farm to get the milk. On her way she went by the garden-gate of a large house that stood close to the farm, and she told the baby a story:

” Last summer,” she said, ” a little girl, bigger than you, for she was just able to walk, came to stay in that house . She and her father and mother. All about the road just here, the ducks and the chickens from the farm, and an old turkey, used to walk about all the day long, but the poor little ducks were very unhappy, for they had no pond to swim about in, only that narrow ditch through which the streamlet is flowing. When the little girl’s father saw this, he took a spade and worked and worked very hard, and out of the ditch and the streamlet he made a little pond for the ducks, and they swam about and were very happy allthrough the summer days. Every morning i used to stand and watch, and presently the garden-gate would open, and then the father would come out, leading the little girl by the hand, and the mother brought a large plateful of bits of broken bread. The little girl used to throw the bread to the ducks, and they ran after it and ate it up quickly, while she laughed out with glee, and the father and the mother laughed too just as merrily. Baby, the father had blue eyes, and a voice that you seemed to hear with your heart.

” The little girl used to feed the chickens too, and the foolish old turkey that was so fond of her it would run after her until she screamed and was afraid. The dear father and the little girl came out every morning, while the black pigs looked through the bars of the farm-yard gate and grunted at them, as if they were glad, and I think the ducks knew that5 the father had made the pond, for they swam round and round in it proudly, while he watched them, but when he went away they seemed tired and sad.

” The pond is not there now, baby, for a man came by one day and made it into a ditch again; and the chickens and the ducks from the farm are kept in another place.

” The little girl is far away in her own home, which the father made for her, and the dear father lives in his own home too in the hearts of those he loved.”

That was the story that Bridget told the baby.

The little sisters went into the room to play with the ball.

“We must be careful not to wake the white cat,” the tall one said, softly

” Or to spoil the roses,” the fat one whispered; ” but throw high, dear sister, or we shall never hit the ceiling.”

” Uou dear children,” thought the white cat, ” Why do you come to play here at all ? Only just round the corner are the shady trees, and the birds singing on the branches, and the sunshine is flecking the pathway. Who knows but what, out there, your ball might touch the sky? Here you will only disturb me, and perhaps spoil the roses; and at the best you can but hit the ceiling !”