Once upon a time in a village, there was an old man named Jerry. He hadn’t seen
his son for few years and wanted to meet his son who lived in a city. He started
his journey and came to a city where his son used to work and stay. He went to
the place from where he used to get letters long back. When he knocked the door
he was excited and smiled with joy to meet his son. Unfortunately, someone else
opened the door. Jerry asked, “I suppose Thomas should be staying in this
place.” The person said, “No! He had left the place and shifted to a different
location.” Jerry was disappointed and just thinking how to meet his son.
He started to walk in the street and the neighbour asked Jerry, “Are you looking for
Thomas?” Jerry responded by nodding his head. The neighbour gave the present
address and office address of Thomas to the Jerry. Jerry thanked them and
started towards the path which will lead to his son. Jerry went to the office and
asked at the reception counter, “Could you please tell me the location of Thomas,
in this office?” The receptionist asked, “May I know how you are related to him?”
Jerry responded politely by saying, “I’m his father.” The receptionist said, Jerry to
wait for a moment and rang up to Thomas and conveyed the same. Thomas was
shocked and told the receptionist to send his father to the cabin immediately.
Jerry entered the cabin and when he saw Thomas, his eyes were filled with tears.
Thomas was happy to see his father. They had a simple conversation for a while
and then Jerry asked Thomas, “Son! Mom wants to see you. Can you Come home
with me?”
Thomas responded, “No father. I can’t come. I am very busy working for my
success and it’s hard to manage a leave to visit as my hands are full with loads of
stressful work .” Jerry gave a simple smile and said, “Okay! You may do your
work. I’ll be going back to our village today evening.” Thomas asked, “You can
stay for few days with me. Please.” Jerry responded after a moment of silence,
“Son. You are busy with your tasks. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or
become a burden for you.” Continued, “I hope if ever had a chance to meet you
again, I would be happy.” He left the place.
After a few weeks, Thomas wondered why his father came alone after a long time,
he felt bad for treating his father in a weird manner. He felt guilty for it and took a
leave in office for few days and went to his village to meet his father. When he
went to the place where he was born and grew up, he saw that his parents were
not there. He was shocked and asked the neighbour, “What happened here? My
parents have to be there. Where are they now?” The neighbour gave the address
of the place where his parents are staying.
Thomas rushed to the place and noticed that the place was like a graveyard.
Thomas eyes were filled with tears and started to walk slowly towards the place.
His father Jerry noticed Thomas in a far distance and waved his hand to draw his
attention. Thomas saw his father and started to run and hugged him.
Jerry asked, “How are you?” and continued, “What a surprise to see you here. I

didn’t expect that you would be coming to this place.” Thomas felt ashamed and
kept his head down. Jerry said, “Why are you feeling bad. Has anything wrong
happened?” Thomas responded, “No father” continued, “It’s just I never knew that
I would be seeing you in this position in our village.”
Jerry smiled and said, “I had taken a loan when you moved to a city for your
college to pay for your education, then again when you wanted a new car, but
due to a loss in farming, I couldn’t repay the loan. So I thought of approaching you
for a help, but you were very busy and stressed with your work. I just didn’t want
to burden you with this problem and remained silent and I had to let go of our
home to repay the loan.”
Thomas whispered, “You could’ve told me. I’m not an outsider.” Jerry turned
around and said, “You were very busy and stressed with your work which made
me remain quiet. All we wanted was your happiness. So I kept quiet.”
Thomas started to cry and hugged his father again. He apologised to his father
and asked to forgive him for his mistake. Jerry smiled and said, “No need for that.
I’m happy with what I got now. All I want is that you spare some time for us, we
love you very much and at this old age it’s hard to travel to see you often.”
Moral: Parents will always be there and give everything they could just to make
you happy. We take them for granted, we don’t appreciate all they do for us until
it’s too late. When you find a path of success in your life, carry on but don’t leave
your parents behind as they are the true reason of your success.

The octopus felt heartily relieved when he was finally set free, but he was so shy
that he didn’t dare talk to the fish and make friends with him. He simply thanked
the fish, and quickly swam off. Later, the octopus spent the whole night
thinking that he had wasted a great opportunity to make friends with that
very kind little fish.
A couple of days later the octopus was resting between some rocks, when he
noticed that everyone around was hurriedly swimming past. He looked into the
distance and saw an enormous fish coming over to feed in that area. The octopus
quickly hid; then, peeping an eye out from his hiding place, he saw that the
huge fish was chasing the kind little fish who had untied him. That little fish really
needed urgent help, but the big fish was so dangerous-looking that no one
dared to go near. The octopus, remembering how the little fish had helped him,
felt that he had to do whatever he could to come to his aid.
Without hesitating, the octopus shot out from the rocks, like a ray. He put himself
right in the path of the giant fish, and before the fish could do anything about it,
the octopus had shot out the biggest jet of ink of his life. He grabbed the little fish,
and swam off back to hide in the rocks. Everything happened so fast that the
big fish had no time to react. However, he soon recovered from the surprise. Off
he went to the rocks, looking for the octopus and the little fish. Now he really
wanted to gobble them down!
Soon, though, he began feeling a terrible itch; first in his gills, and then in his fins,
and then all over his body. It turned out that this giant fish had a very artistic
nature, he adored colours; and the octopus’s dark ink had given him a terrible
allergy!!
So the big fish swam away, irritated all over.
As soon as he was gone, all the fish who had been hiding came and

congratulated the octopus for being so brave. Then the little fish told them
all how he had helped the octopus a few days earlier, but he had never
known anyone be so grateful that they would end up doing something so
dangerous. Hearing this, the other fish discovered how nice the shy octopus
was, and everyone around was keen to be the friend of such a brave and
honourable octopus.

There once lived a monkey and an elephant, in a faraway jungle who was best
friends. The two of them did everything together. Suddenly one day an unusual and
somewhat heated disagreement between the two had broken out who contributed
more to their exploits. The monkey had told the elephant that it was better to be
fast, flexible, and agile. The elephant argued it was much better to be strong. The
two of them simply couldn’t agree. So they went to the wise owl of the jungle and
asked him.
The owl pointed to a tall tree far across the river with a unique fruit towards the top
of its large trunk. He told the monkey and the elephant that when they bring that
fruit from the tree back to him he would answer their question. The two friends
argued that it would be next to impossible to get the fruit, but they agreed to try.
As they to the banks of the river the monkey realized that the river was too deep.
When the elephant reached the river he just charged in the river towards the tree.
Once there the elephant tried to reach the fruit but the fruit was too high, and when
the elephant tried to knock it down with its strength the tree being so big it
wouldn’t budge. So the elephant went back to the banks where the monkey was
waiting.
Once together again the elephant told the monkey to jump on his back and they
would successfully cross the river together. Once they reached the tree, the
monkey climbed the tree and was able to successfully pick the fruit. Then the
monkey climbed down with the fruit, sat on the elephants back, and rested as they
made their journey back to deliver the fruit to the wise owl. The owl asked, “Of the
two of you, which one brought the fruit to me?” The monkey loudly declared he had
because he was the one who had actually plucked the fruit. The elephant strongly
argued that he had because without his help the monkey would have never gotten
to the other side of the river.
It was at that point that the owl stopped the argument and said, “Tell me what’s
more important? That one of you is right or that you got the job done in the end? If
you take a look at the big picture each of you has your own abilities and strengths
and none of them is more superior to the others. Together they are powerful,
individually they are weak. Together you have achieved what would have been
impossible alone.”

Moral of the story:

Think about what is more important to you when you work in a group. Is
it that you are “the one” that is always right or in charge or is it that you bring
the group together and achieve your goals?

Once a father and son went to the kite flying festival. The young son became very
happy seeing the sky filled with colorful kites. He too asked his father to get him a
kite and a thread with a roller so he can fly a kite too. So, the father went to the
shop at the park where the festival was being held. He purchased kites and a roll
of thread for his son.
His son started to fly a kite. Soon, his kite reached high up in the sky. After a
while, the son said, “Father, It seems that the thread is holding up a kite from
flying higher, If we break it, It will be free and will go flying even higher. Can we
break it?” So, the father cut the thread from a roller. The kite started to go a little
higher. That made a son very happy.
But then, slowly, the kite started to come down. And, soon it fell down on the
terrace of the unknown building. The young son was surprised to see this. He had
cut the kite loose of its thread so it can fly higher, but instead, it fell down. He
asked his father, “Father, I thought that after cutting off the thread, the kite can
freely fly higher. But why did it fall down?”
The Father explained, “Son, At the height of life that we live in, we often think that
some things we are tied with and they are preventing us from going further higher.
The thread was not holding the kite from going higher, but it was helping it stay
higher when the wind slowed down and when the wind picked up, you helped the
kite go up higher in a proper direction through the thread. And when we cut the
thread, it fell down without the support you were providing to the kite through the
thread”.
The son realized his mistake.
Moral: Sometimes we feel that we can progress quickly and reach to the newer
heights in our life if we were not tied up with our family, our home. But, we fail to
realize that our family, our loved ones help us survive the tough time in our lives
with their support and encourage us to reach higher heights in our life. They are
not holding us, but are supporting us. Never let go of them.

The fish loved the river. It felt blissful swimming around in its clear blue waters. One day while
swimming closer to the river banks it hears a voice say, “hey, fish, how is the water?”
The fish raises its head above the water and sees a monkey seated on a branch of a tree.
The fish replies, “The water is nice and warm, thank you”.
The monkey feels jealous of the fish and wants to put it down. It says, “why don’t you come out of
the water and climb this tree. The view from here is amazing!”
The fish feeling a little sad, replies, “I don’t know how to climb a tree and I cannot survive without
water”.
Hearing this the monkey makes fun of the fish saying, “you are totally worthless if you cannot climb
a tree!”
The fish starts thinking about this remark day and night and becomes extremely depressed, “yes,
the monkey is right”, it would think, “I cannot even climb a tree, I must be worthless.”
A sea-horse sees the fish feeling all depressed and asks it what the reason was. Upon knowing the
reason, the sea-horse laughs and says, “If the monkey thinks you are worthless for not being able to
climb the tree, then the monkey is worthless too cause it cannot swim or live under water.”
Upon hearing this the fish suddenly realized how gifted it was; that it had the ability to survive under
water and swim freely which the monkey never could!
The fish feels thankful to nature for giving it such an amazing ability.
Moral of the story:
This story takes from Einstein’s quote, “Everybody is a genius.

A student asked his teacher, “What is Greed?” The teacher said, “In order to
answer your question, go through the chocolate factory next to our school and
pick the one chocolate you like the most. But there is a rule. As you pass through
the factory, you cannot turn back. You must pick the chocolate as you go forward
only.”
The student went to the chocolate factory. As he walked through, He saw the one
chocolate wrapped nicely, he instantly liked it but he wondered that he may find
much bigger one further. So, He walked further, then he saw another chocolate.
But again, he thought the same. When he started to reach near the end of the
factory, he couldn’t see any chocolates as big as the one he didn’t pick earlier and
started to regret his decision of letting it go.
Finally, he gave up. He went back to the teacher with an empty hand and gave an
explanation of what he did.
The teacher told him, “You did like the one chocolate very much but still you kept
looking for a bigger one. And later you realized that what you let go off was the
best chocolate you could find there. That my dear is called Greed.”
Moral: We let go of many good things in our life because of our greed of having
even better things. Our Human Nature is such that we always want better and
better. But in the search of better, we let go of many good things which could have
given us similar satisfaction and made us happy. Learn make your choice wisely.

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove
the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way.
Then a peasant
came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the
stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of
vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note
from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what
many others never understand.
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.

Panning For Gold – A Story about Finding Your Purpose in Life
A frustrated young man went to see the wise man in his village.
“I don’t know what to do with my life. How do I find my purpose?” the young man
asked.
“Follow me,” said the old man.
Silently, they trudged together to a faraway river where they found dozens of
prospectors panning for gold.
“There are three types of prospectors here,” the sage said.
“What do you mean?” the young man inquired.
“There are those who strike gold straight away. Excited, they take their plunder,
cash it in and live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Then there are those who
pan for years. They know that there is gold here and they have seen others strike
it rich, so they persist until they too find the gold that they’ve been searching for.”
“What about the third type?” asked the young man?
“They are the individuals who get frustrated that they haven’t found what they are
looking for, so after a day, a week or a year or more, they give up, walk away and
never find gold.”
Slightly confused, the young man asked, “What has this got to do with finding my
purpose?”
“Aah yes, the age-old question.” the old man smiled and looked his companion in
the eye. “There are those in life who look for their purpose and seem to find it
almost immediately. From a young age they have a clear sense of purpose and
pursue their dreams with energy and enthusiasm. Some others have to look a bit
harder, perhaps for many years, but if they persist and keep looking, they will find
something to live for. Finally, there are those who want to know their purpose, but
they become frustrated with the search and give up too soon, returning to a life of
meaningless wandering.”
“Can everyone find their purpose?”
“Is there gold in the river?” The wise man responded.
“So, how do I find my own purpose?”
“Keep looking.”
“But what if I want to find it quicker?”
“Son, there are no guarantees that you will be able to find it quickly, the only

guarantee is that if you give up and stop looking for it, you’ll never find it.”
The young man looked despondent, feeling that he had wasted his time with the
old man.
He felt a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “I can sense your frustration, but let me
assure you, if you can find your true calling in life, you will live with passion, make
the world a better place, be richer than you could imagine and feel as though the
very face of God Himself is smiling upon you. That may happen next week, next
year or in the years ahead, but the search will be worth it and your life will never
be the same again. So for now, your purpose is to find your purpose.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, and there’s one other thing that I forgot to mention.”
“What’s that?”
“Just as those men and women need to get down to the river with a pan to find
their gold, so we need to remain active to find our purposes, we don’t find it sitting
around at home doing nothing.”
It was getting late, so the two men turned for home and began their long walk
back to the village.
As they walked, the young man was deep in thought about what he had just
learned, and the wise man smiled to himself, knowing that conversations like this
were an important part of living his own purpose.
Now, over to you.
Do you know your purpose for life?
Are you still looking?
Or have you given up?

Once the frog fell in a vessel of the hot water. The Water was still on a gas stove.
The frog still did not try to jump out of the vessel, instead just stayed in it. As the
temperature of the water started to rise, the frog managed to adjust its body
temperature accordingly. As the water started to reach the boiling point, the frog
was no longer able to keep up and manage its body temperature according to the
water temperature.
The frog tried to jump out of the vessel but with water temperature reaching its
boiling point, the frog was not able to bear it and couldn’t make it. What was the
reason that a frog couldn’t make it? Will you blame the hot water for it?
Moral: The frog couldn’t make it due to its own inability to decide when it had to
jump out. We all need to adjust according to the situations but there are times
when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action when we have
the strength to do so before it’s too late. Walk out before you need to jump.

Once, there was a man, Goobe (just a fictional name), who had lot of donkeys.
Goobe used the donkeys to carry load to different markets where it could be sold.
One day Goobe loaded bags of salt onto a donkey. On the way while crossing the
bridge, the donkey fell into the river and when it came out there was hardly any
salt left in the bags.
Upon reaching home, Goobe overheard the conversation of the donkeys. The
donkey which fell into the river told the other donkeys that if they fall into water,
the load gets lighter.
Next day, Goobe selected a donkey, loaded it up and began his journey. On the
way the donkey didn’t move forward until Goobe let it fall into water. When it got
out, something was weird. The load had become heavier instead of getting lighter.
Any idea why?
Because Goobe had loaded sponge on this day.
This is how Goobe taught a lesson to his lazy donkeys.