Once upon a time, there lived a washerman in a village. He had a donkey.
The washerman used to collect dirty clothes from the nearby villages and bring the clothes home
on the back of his donkey.
It was his routine task to wash the clothes and take them back to their respective houses in similar manner.
One day, the washerman got late in reaching back home. It was dark all around. Both of them were
unable to see the way in darkness.
There was a big pit on the roadside. Unfortunately, the donkey fell into the pit. Seeing this the washerman got terrified and began to scream loudly.
The donkey too was getting restless to come out of the pit. So, he began to bray loudly.
Hearing the uproar some villagers rushed to their rescue. But they could not get the donkey out of the pit, however hard they tried.
All the persons dug out earth and began to throw it over the donkey stuck there in the pit. But the donkey was very intelligent.
When earth fell over the donkey, he jerked it off and stood over it.
In this way, the pit got filled up with earth and the donkey jumped out of it, safe and sound.
Moral : Never lose patience in trying times.
The Greedy Bear
One morning, a hungry bear was searching for food near a river-bank.
When he did not find anything, he jumped into river water to catch fish.
Suddenly, he sighted a fish in the water. He at once grabbed the fish.
“This fish is very small. It won’t satiate my hunger. I need a big fish.” Saying these words the bear set the fish free.
After some time the bear caught another fish but it too was very small. The bear released it as well.
Thus the bear caught several fish but he released them all as they were small.
The hungry bear could not catch even a single big fish from dawn to dusk.
The bear had got tired of searching for fish in the water.
So, he came out of the water and sat near the bank. He was very sad.
He thought, ‘I released small fish in the hope of catching big fish. Those small fish could have easily satiated my hunger.’
The bear got saddened by his greed and foolishness.
Someone has rightly remarked, “He who pursues two hares catches neither.”
Moral : Greed yields no fruitful result.
