The Four Friends

Four friends live in a village which has been struck by famine. Three of them are extremely clever
and learned and consider their friend Shivanand a lazy but practical fool.
The four decide to go a place called Manasa, which is considered an asylum for scholars. On their
way, they have to pass through a forest. There they come across bones of a lion. Satyanand
decides to show his knowledge by recreating the lion’s skeleton. The other friend reconstructs the
lion’s muscles and structure. Vidyanand then wants to show his superior powers by breathing life
into the lion.
Shivanand tries to stop them and warns them of the consequences of their plans. But they do not
stop. Shivanand climbs a tree before Vidyanand foolishly proceeds with his plans. The lion comes
to life and devours the three learned fools.
Shivanand’s practical nature saves him.
Moral: It is better to be practical than learned

Long ago, there lived a little boy named Sammy. He was a good boy. He was good in his studies,
obedient to his parents, more intelligent than many other boys in his class and kind to everyone.
Grown-ups as well as those junior to Sammy loved him very much. But that aroused jealousy in
many other boys who longed to be as loved as Sammy.
Now there was another boy named Timmy who studied in the same class as Sammy. Unlike
Sammy, he was not good at studies and always liked to play during school hours. He misbehaved
with his parents, bullied his classmates and even ill-treated Sammy. He always tried to put Sammy
down and belittled him before other kids in the class. But no matter what he did, Sammy's grades
kept getting better and better. Whether in studies or in sports or from his classmates, Sammy kept
getting accolades from everywhere.
On his eighth birthday, Sammy got a nice pen as a gift from his parents. He brought it to school so
that he could use it to take down the notes of the lectures that the teachers gave in class. This was
a very beautiful pen and it could help one write very fast. When Timmy saw it, he was very
jealous of Sammy. He asked Sammy,
"Hey, where did you get that? Did you buy it?"
"My parents gave it as a birthday gift to me." replied Sammy.
Timmy was overwhelmed with anger and jealousy. The bad boy that he was, he rarely got any
present from his parents. He decided to steal Sammy's pen. During recess, when everyone had
gone out from the class, Timmy opened Sammy's bag and took out his pen. Then he hid it inside
his bag and went out to have his tiffin.
When Sammy came back and could not find his pen, he informed his class teacher about it. There
was a hunt for the missing pen and the class teacher ordered the class monitor to search the bag of
every children inside the class. The missing pen was soon found out of Timmy's bag and the
furious teacher asked the errant boy,
"Now Timmy, what do you have to say about it?"
Timmy was in tears. He had nothing to say.
When Sammy saw Timmy cry, he took pity on the boy. The kind boy that he was, he had no ill-
feeling against his classmate. He requested his class teacher not to take any action against Timmy,
now that his stolen pen was found. This opened Timmy's eyes. He could now see what a good boy
Sammy was. He asked for forgiveness from his teacher and Sammy. From that day, he became
friends with Sammy and gradually changed himself to be as good as Sammy. Everyone began to
love Timmy and Sammy was proud of his new friend.
Despite being hurt by Timmy, Sammy gave him back only love in return. This is how we should
also treat our enemies. Who knows? One day, our behaviour may just change themselves for the
better.
Moral: Do not harm someone even if he harms you. Be good to all.

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer who had a little land. His name was Tuan and he was a
very kind and good-natured person. He lived in a hut on his land with his wife and children and
earned by selling whatever crops he could produce on his small land.
Tuan loved to help others. Whenever someone fell ill or needed something badly, Tuan was there
to help that person. If someone died in the village, Tuan assisted the family members of the
deceased person in whichever way he could. If anyone fell ill at night, Tuan was right beside the
village doctor to help him prepare the medicines and tend to the sick. There seemed to be none
who hated this man. He appeared to be loved by one and all.
But there was one person who hated Tuan with all his heart. He was Juan, a neighbour of Tuan,
who lived in the land next to him. A lazy person by nature, Juan hardly put in as much effort to
cultivate his land as Tuan did to produce crops in his own. So when the harvest season arrived
every year, Juan found that he had very few crops to sell. Tuan on the other hand, earned a
handsome profit through the selling of his produces.
One year, Juan could no longer contain his jealousy. Just days before Tuan was to reap his harvest,
Juan set fire to his crops at night. Tuan was asleep at this time and it was only the alertness of one
of his other neighbours that saved much of his crops from being perished in the deadly flames of
the fire that Juan had lighted.
When the flames were doused, Tuan saw which direction the fire had started from. Juan's
animosity towards him was unknown to Tuan. But he let the matters rest and decided to take
action only if he saw Juan repeating his dastardly act once again.
That year, Tuan managed to sell the rest of his crops at a good price but he could not make much
profit for a good part of his produces had been burnt. He had a heavy heart but he did not like to
tell anyone about it.
Only days later, Tuan was awakened by the sound of lamentations. He went out to find a crowd
beside Juan's hut. He rushed to find that Juan's son had fallen ill. He found that the village doctor
was unable to provide a cure to his illness. Tuan knew what he had to do. He untied his own horse
and rode it. Then he rushed to the town that was ten miles away and fetched a more experienced
doctor who lived there.
This doctor was able to guess the disease correctly and provided an exact cure for it. Within hours,
the boy was found to sleep soundly and Tuan went with the doctor to take him back to the town.
A day later, Juan went to Tuan's hut and began to weep bitterly. He confessed to his sins but was
surprised when Tuan told him that he knew about it all.
"You knew that I had set fire to your crops? And still you fetched the doctor for my son?" asked
the astonished Juan.
Tuan nodded and said, "I did what I knew was right. Could I do wrong just because you had done
so?"
Juan stood up and embraced Tuan. Both men were in tears and so were the others who stood by
them.
From that day, Juan changed himself. Within a year, he could produce much crops in his land
through his hard work. When the others asked him how he had changed so much, he only replied,
"It was the goodness and love of Tuan that transformed me."
Moral: Be nice to your friends. Be nicer to your enemies.