Short stories

           The secret of Happyness Once upon a time, there were three brothers named Samuel, Timothy and Xander, who lived in a cottage by the woods. They were honest and hardworking. Every day, they would venture into the forest to fell wood. Later, they would sell it in the market where it would fetch a decent price. Thus, their life continued in this manner.  However, the brothers were always sad and morose. Even though they lived a good life, they were unhappy. Each one hankered for something or the other and would pine for it.  One day, while Samuel, Timothy and Xander were returning home from the woods carrying their bundle of logs, they saw an old haggard woman bent low with a sack on her back. As they were kind and compassionate, the brothers immediately approached the poor woman and offered to carry the sack all the way to her home. She smiled and expressed her gratefulness, while replying that the sack actually contain...

Health is Wealth Once upon a time, there lived a generous and kind-hearted king. But the people weren’t happy with their king because the king was very lazy and would not do anything other than eating and sleeping. He spent days and weeks and months in his bed either eating something or sleeping. The king became a potato couch and the people started to worry about the king. One day, the king realized that he couldn’t even move his body, not even his foot. He became very fat and his enemies made fun of him, calling him ‘fatty king’, ‘bulky king’ etc. The king invited expert doctors from various parts of his country and offered them generous rewards to make him fit. Unfortunately, none could help the king gain his health and fitness. The king spent enormous amounts of money but everything went in vain. One fine morning, a holy man visited the country. He heard about the ill-health of the king, and informed the minister at the palace that he could easily cure the king. H...

Sand and Stone John and James were best friends. They fought for many reasons, but never gave up their friendship. They went in search of a job and visited many places to earn some money. They passed through various places, villages, towns, forests, and beaches. They supported each other throughout their journey. One day, they reached a desert. They had a very little food and water. John said that they should save the food and water for later use. However, James disagreed. He wanted to drink water, as he was very thirsty. They quarrelled with each other for water. John slapped James, and they walked in silence. James wrote on the sand, “My best friend slapped me!” Finally, they reached an oasis. They were very happy, and had a lot of fun in the water. While they both were bathing, James was a bit careless and began to drown. John rushed to him and saved him. James hugged his friend and thanked him. They had a little nap and decided to leave the place. When they were abo...

Powerful Prayers Kim and Ray were very close companions. They were neighbours, classmates at school, and later, colleagues at work. One day, they decided to go on a sea voyage to explore strange lands. They began their voyage in a cruise ship, and travelled far and wide. However, in the course of their trip, the weather turned very destructive. The ship was wrecked in the middle of the ocean. Most of the passengers were killed, but Kim and Ray could swim to a nearby island. The island was deserted; not even a tree was there. Kim and Ray realized that they could not survive on the island without divine intervention. They decided to pray to God. They wanted to see whose prayer would be more powerful. Kim moved to the eastern tip of the island, knelt down and began to pray there. Ray went to the western tip of the island and prayed there. Kim prayed to God to give him food to survive. Surprisingly, he got a pile of food, fruits and vegetables on the sea shore. After two d...

A Unique Experience It was a cold and windy night. My friend and I had met after a long time, and were chatting for hours. We did not notice the time passing by, and soon it was close to ten in the night. We decided to take an auto rickshaw to go to our house. It started raining, and we hurried to get into an auto rickshaw and reach our place. None of the auto rickshaws stopped for us, except one. The driver asked us where we wanted to go and we told the place. Without saying anything about the fare, he said, “Please get in!” We thanked him and got in. Since it was very cold, I asked the driver to stop at any small restaurant or a tea shop. We wanted to have a cup of hot tea. The driver stopped near a small restaurant. We ordered tea, and asked the driver to join us and have a cup of tea. The driver refused. I insisted, but he refused again politely. My friend asked, “Will you not take tea from this shop or what?” The driver replied, “No Sir, I don’t feel like hav...

The Hidden Treasure Once, there was an old man who had four sons. All four of them were very lazy. One day, the old man fell sick and was counting his last days in bed. He worried a lot about his sons’ future as the young men hesitated a lot to work. The sons believed that luck would favour them. The old man’s health deteriorated every day and he decided to talk to his sons about their future. However, his sons did not listen to him. Finally, the old man decided to play a trick to let his sons realize the importance of work. He called all his sons and let them sit near him on his bed. He said that he had a treasure box with gold coins and expensive gems for them and wanted to share the treasure equally among the four of them. The young men were very happy and asked where his father had placed the treasure. The old man replied, “I cannot exactly remember the place where I have hidden the treasure. However, the treasure box is buried in our land. I’m really not sure abo...

The Ant and the Dove One hot day, an ant was searching for some water. After walking around for some time, she came to a spring. To reach the spring, she had to climb up a blade of grass. While making her way up, she slipped and fell into the water. She could have drowned if a dove up a nearby tree had not seen her. Seeing that the ant was in trouble, the dove quickly plucked a leaf and dropped it into the water near the struggling ant. The ant moved towards the leaf and climbed up onto it. Soon, the leaf drifted to dry ground, and the ant jumped out. She was safe at last. Just at that time, a hunter nearby was about to throw his net over the dove, hoping to trap it. Guessing what he was about to do, the ant quickly bit him on the heel. Feeling the pain, the hunter dropped his net. The dove was quick to fly away to safety. One good turn begets another.