Dry Canal

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Until it suddenly stopped making any progress and looked like it was stuck. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man didn’t think anything of it and sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body. Despite the kind heart of the man, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening; were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings. To prepare itself for flying

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way. A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant went back to pick up his 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 explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. Moral of the story: Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances, and whi

One day, in a heavily crowded place, a young man began shouting. "People, look at me. I have the most beautiful heart in the world." Many people looked at him and were stunned to see his beautiful heart in a perfect shape, without any flaw. It looked quite amazing. Most of the people who saw his heart were mesmerized by the beauty of his heart, and praised him. However, there came an old man who challenged the young man, "No my son, I have got the most beautiful heart in the world!" The young man asked him, "Show me your heart, then!" The old man showed his heart to him. It was very rough, uneven, and had scars all over. In addition, the heart was not in shape; it appeared like bits and pieces joined in various colours. There were some rough edges; some parts were removed, and fitted with other pieces. The young man started laughing, and said, "My dear old man, are you mad? See, my heart! How beautiful and flawless it is. You cannot f

A group of employees was working in a software company. It was a team of 30 employees. This was a young, energetic and dynamic team with keen enthusiasm and desire to learn and grow. The management decided to teach the employees about finding real solution to the problems. The team was called to play a game in a banquet hall. The group was quite surprised as they were called for playing game. All reached the venue holding various thoughts. As they entered the hall, they found the hall decorated beautifully with colourful decorative papers and balloons all over the place. It was more like a kid's play area, than a corporate meeting hall. Everyone was surprised and gazed at each other. Also, there was a huge box of balloons placed at the centre of the hall. The team leader asked everyone to pick a balloon from the box and asked them to blow it. Every one happily picked a balloon and blew it. Then the team leader asked them to write their names on their balloon, carefully

There lived a heron by a big lake. He used to catch fish and eat them. But he had become old and could not catch fish like before. He went without food for many days together. "I have to think of a plan. Otherwise I won't live for long," thought the heron. Soon he came out with a clever plan. The heron sat at the water's edge looking depressed and thoughtful. In the same lake lived a crab who was friendly and thoughtful. As he went past, he noticed how the heron looked and asked him, "Why are you looking depressed my friend?" "What can I say," said the heron in a sad voice. "Something terrible is going to happen." "What is that?" asked the crab anxiously. "When I was on my way here this morning, I heard an astrologer say that there will be no rains in these parts for the next twelve years. The lake will dry up and we will all die. I am quite old. It does not matter if I die. But you all are so young. There is s

Once, a wolf was very hungry. It looked for food here and there. But it couldn't get any. At last it found a loaf of bread and piece of meat in the hole of a tree. The hungry wolf squeezed into the hole. It ate all the food. It was a woodcutter's lunch. He was on his way back to the tree to have lunch. But he saw there was no food in the hole, instead, a wolf. On seeing the woodcutter, the wolf tried to get out of the hole. But it couldn't. Its tummy was swollen. The woodcutter caught the wolf and gave it nice beatings.

Once upon a time, in a faraway land there lived a farmer with his two sons. He worked hard and looked after his farm, his cattle, and orchard regularly. He did not take a break and toiled with his laborers throughout the year. It was little wonder that he had fields finest in the village. His cattle and sheep were the best in the village. Choicest fruits and vegetables grew in his garden and orchard. During the monthly fair, where all village folks met to sell their wares, his was the best of the lot. His neighbors envied and said, "There goes Manohar, his sons are fortunate to have him as a father. They are going to inherit all this when he dies". Manohar had two sons. The elder one was Ravi and the younger Hari. However, Manohar what could do with his farm, his land and his cattle, he could not do with his sons. They were not interested in following their father's footsteps. Ravi was a warrior and was more interested in arms and fighting, while Hari liked music

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. Imagr by vector stock 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 contained apples that she had collected in the forest. Samuel, Timothy

There lived a famous sage in a dense forest. Everyday, the animals of the forest came to him to listen to his spiritual preachings. They would gather around the meditating sage and the sage would tell them the good things of life. There was also a little mouse living in the same forest. He too used to go to the sage daily to listen to his preachings. One day, while he was roaming in the forest to collect berries for the sage, he was attacked by a big cat, who was watching him from behind the thick bushes. The mouse was scared. He ran straight to the ashram of the sage. There he lay prostrate before the sage and narrated to him the whole story in a trembling voice. In the meantime, the cat also arrived there and requested the sage to allow him to take his prey. The sage was in a fix. He thought for a moment and then with his divine powers transformed the mouse into a bigger cat. Seeing a huge cat before him the other cat ran away. Now the mouse was carefree. He began to roa

Once upon a time, two geese by the names of Sankata and Vikata and a tortoise by the name of Kambugriva lived near a river. They were good friends. Once, due to drought in the region, all the rivers, lakes and ponds went dry. There was not a drop of water to drink for the birds and animals. They began to die of thirst. The three friends talked among themselves to find a solution to this problem and go out in search of water. But despite their best efforts they could not find water anywhere around. You are reading this article on DryCanal. Blogspot.Com Having no alternative the three friends decided to go to some distant lake, full of water, to settle down there forever. But there was a problem in shifting to so distant a place. While it was easy for the geese to fly, it was difficult for the tortoise to cover that distance on foot. So the tortoise put up a bright idea. He said, "Why not bring a strong stick? I will hold the stick in the middle with my teeth and you two

Long, long ago, there lived three friends in a jungle. They were-a deer, a crow and a mouse. They used to share their meals together. One day, a turtle came to them and said, "I also want to join your company and become your friend. I'm all alone. " "You're most welcome," said the crow. "But what about your personal safety. There are many hunters around. They visit this jungle regularly. Suppose, a hunter comes, how will you save yourself?" "That is the reason why I want to join your group," said the turtle No sooner had they talked about it than a hunter appeared on the scene. Seeing the hunter, the deer darted away; the crow flew in the sky and the mouse ran into a hole. The turtle tried to crawl away fast, but he was caught by the hunter. The hunter tied him up in the net. He was sad to lose the deer. But he thought, it was better to feast on the turtle rather than to go hungry. The turtle's three friends became much w

At the border of a forest, a landlord had a big garden, which he liked very much. As he couldn't look after it himself, he appointed a gardener to take care of the garden. The gardener was very faithful, and looked after the garden very well. Image by: vector stock However, it was the summer season and he had to water the plants daily. As a result, there was no holiday for him, because, if he ever took leave, even for a day, most of the plants would dry up. Whenever, he approached the landlord with a request to take even a day off, the landlord would puff up and say, "Who would water the plants in your absence? As there is no one else to water the plants in your absence, I am afraid; I cannot grant you any leave". The gardener was frightened and had no reply. And as a result, he had to give up the thought of taking any day off. And hence the drudgery continued. One day, as the annual temple festival was to take place in the gardener's village; he was very e

One night, the jackal, decided to leave the forest and visit the neighboring village. There he happened to meet a bitch and fell in love with her. Soon, the bitch became pregnant. Her delivery date was fast approaching, and the jackal grew increasingly nervous. So, they left to the forest which he felt, was safer. He warned the human beings in the village could take away the pups. The bitch thought this was good advice, and they decided to leave for the forest. The couple reached the forest and the jackal went searching for a safe place. He found an abandoned den of a tiger, and felt the cave was a perfect shelter for the pups. The jackal told the bitch, "This cave is the best place to stay and that nobody would disturb us here". But his wife said, "This is the tiger's cave and he will kill us if he finds out." The jackal assured her and told her that he will attend to the tiger. They began organizing and the jackal brought some hay, so they could

A mouse was having a very thought time. She had no food for many days and made strenuous efforts get her food. All her efforts went in vain. She looked everywhere to find her food. As the days pass by, she became very thin. One day, the mouse found a basket with corns. She also noticed a tiny hole in the basket, which was sufficient enough to move her in. She easily moved inside the hole. Since she had no foods for many days, she ate a large amount of corn. Without realizing her, she continuously ate more and more corns. She realized very later that she ate a lot more than she actually required. After eating a whole lot of corn, she became very fat! Satisfied with corns, the fat mouse tried to come out of the basket through the small hole. Unfortunately, the tiny hole could not accommodate the big mouse!!!! The mouse started screaming 'Oh god! Let me come out, how can I come out?' A rat after hearing mouse's screaming voice from the basket, asked her what hap

There lived a tiny mouse in a big dense forest that was always in search of food. While searching in the forest, one day, it came near a lion's den. The good smell coming from the lion's den drew the little mouse inside it. The mouse found several pieces of animal meat on the floor. Those were all the leftovers of the animal the lion had eaten. Therefore, the mouse ate few pieces. Later, it decided to eat the other pieces at night, so it stayed back in the den. Due to over eating, the mouse fell asleep inside the den. The lion returned to its den at dark but could not see the sleeping mouse as it was dark inside the den. The lion ate the entire piece of lamb it had brought and left the bones lying on the floor. After a sumptuous filling meal, the lion slept off and started snoring aloud. The loud snoring sounds woke the mouse up with a sudden jerk. When the mouse saw the lion sleeping in the den, he got scared and puzzled, and accidentally bumped in to the lion's l

Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful and extremely amiable girl named, Walk. She was a good girl, but she never liked her name as all the kids around her made fun of her name. She ran away from everybody who teased her name and hence, Walk never really had friends. She would play alone all the time. On a regular day, when Walk returned home from school, she finished her homework as soon as possible and asked her mother, if she could go out and play. Her mother said yes, but warned her to not wander and go far away from home. Walk was happy that day; she went to her favorite spot near the river running just behind her house. Walk had this theory that wherever the river was splashing and moving, it meant that the river water was taking to her. Walk spoke back to the river in her own little weird way. Today, when talking to the river, she said, "You are so fortunate river, as you get to travel different places and always be with your friends- ducks, turtles, fishes, a

Once upon a time, in a jungle there lived a jackal by the name of Gomaya. One day, he was very hungry and was wandering in search of food. While wandering, he came across a battle field. There he saw a big drum lying under a tree. When the wind blew, a tender branch grown at the root of the tree struck the drum producing sound of a drum beat. The jackal examined the drum from all sides and then beat the drum with his front paws. The drum made a sound. Now the jackal thought that there might be some other small animal inside the drum and that would make a very tasty meal for him. But he found the top of the drum too tough to tear off. The jackal thought of a plan and began to beat the drum with both his front paws.The sound of drumbeat filled the whole jungle. A leopard who was attracted towards the sound of the drum, came near it. The jackal said to the leopard, "Your Majesty, there is some animal hiding inside the drum. Since you have sharp claws and strong teeth, you can

Long ago, people lived happily under the rule of a king. The people of the kingdom were very happy as they led a very prosperous life with an abundance of wealth and no misfortunes. Once, the king decided to go visiting places of historical importance and pilgrim centres at distant places. He decided to travel by foot to interact with his people. People of distant places were very happy to have a conversation with their king. They were proud that their king had a kind heart. After several weeks of travel, the king returned to the palace. He was quite happy that he had visited many pilgrim centres and witnessed his people leading a prosperous life. However, he had one regret. He had intolerable pain in his feet as it was his first trip by foot covering a long distance. He complained to his ministers that the roads weren't comfortable and that they were very stony. He could not tolerate the pain. He said that he was very much worried about the people who had to walk along

Before several centuries, there was a very large, dense and dark forest. A group of monkeys arrived at the forest. It was winter season, and the monkeys struggled hard to survive the freezing cold nights. They were hunting for fire to get warm. One night, they saw a firefly and considered it a dab of fire. All the monkeys in the group shouted 'Fire, Fire, Fire, Yeah we got fire!' A couple of monkeys tried to catch the firefly and it escaped. They were sad as they could not catch the fire. They were talking to themselves that they couldn't live in the cold if they didn't get the fire. The next night, again they saw many fireflies. After several attempts, the monkeys caught a few fireflies. They put the fireflies in a hole dug in the land and tried to blow the flies. They blew the flies very hard without knowing the fact that they were flies! An owl was watching the activities of the monkeys. The owl reached the monkeys and told them, 'Hey those are not

It was a fine summer morning, perfect to be outdoors. Two sisters had been out mushroom picking, and were on their home with heavy baskets full of mushrooms. They sang songs on the way, and played with each other. Soon they reached a point where they had to cross a railway track. They did not think twice about crossing it since there was no train coming, and they could not hear any whistle. They slowly climbed the embankment to cross the track, taking care not to drop the baskets. They were very near the track and the little sister was about the cross it, when they heard the distinct horn of a train. The older sister got frightened and ran back. She thought that the young one was following her. She turned back and was shocked to see her little sister still crossing the track. "Come back here, run back fast," she screamed. It seemed that the little girl could not hear her sister. She was still concentrating on stepping over the track with her little feet, and holdi

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid himself and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way. A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant went back to pick up his 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 explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. Moral of the story: Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances, and whi

Once, there was this guy, who was in love with a girl. She wasn’t the most beautiful and gorgeous but for him, she was everything. He used to dream about her, about spending the rest of life with her. His friends told him, “why do you dream so much about her, when you don’t even know if she loves you or not? First tell her your feelings, and get to know if she likes you or not”.  He felt that was the right way. The girl knew from the beginning, that this guy loves her. One day when he proposed, she rejected him. His friends thought he would take alcohol, drugs etc and ruin his life. To their surprise, he was not depressed. When they asked him how was it that he is not sad, he replied, “‘why should I feel bad? I lost one who never loved me and she lost the one who really loved and cared for her.”  Moral: True Love is Hard to Get. Love is all about giving to other person without greed of gaining anything in return, if other person rejects it, its him/her who will be losing the

Image by: Vector Stock One beautiful spring morning, a merchant loaded his donkey with bags of salt to go to the market, in order to sell the salt. The merchant and his donkey were walking along together. They had not walked far when they reached a river on the way. Unfortunately, the donkey slipped and fell into the river. As it scrambled up the bank of the river, it noticed that the bags of salt loaded on his back had become lighter. There was nothing the merchant could do except return home, where he loaded his donkey with more bags of salt. As they reached the slippery riverbank again, the donkey fell into the river, this time deliberately. Thus the salt was wasted again. By now the merchant knew the donkey's trick. He wanted to teach the animal a lesson. As he returned home the second time with the donkey, the merchant loaded bags of sponges on its back. The duo set out on their trip to the market a third time. On reaching the river, the donkey very cleverly fel

Long ago, there lived an old man with his three sons in a deserted village, located in the vicinity of a desert. He had 17 camels, and they were the main source of his income. He used to rent out camels as a means of shipping in the desert. One day, he passed away. He had left a will, leaving his assets for his three sons. After the funeral and the other obligations were over, the three sons read the will. While their father had divided all the property he had into three equal parts, he had divided the 17 camels in a different way. They were not shared equally among the three as 17 is an odd number and a prime number, which cannot be divided. The old man had stated that the eldest son will own half of the 17 camels, the middle one will get one third of the 17 camels, and the youngest one will get his share of camels as one ninth! All of them were stunned to read the will and questioned each other how to divide the 17 camels as mentioned in the will. It is not possible to div

Once upon a time in a small village lived four Brahmins named Satyanand, Vidhyanand, Dharmanand and Sivanand. They had grown up together to become good friends. Satyanand, Vidhyanand and Dharmanand were very knowledgeable. But Sivanand spent most of his time eating and sleeping. He was considered foolish by everyone. Once famine struck the village. All the crops failed. Rivers and lakes started to dry up. The people of the villages started moving to other villages to save their lives. "We also need to move to another place soon or else we will also die like many others," said Satyanand. They all agreed with him. "But what about Sivanand?" Asked Satyanand. "Do we need him with us? He has no skills or learning. We cannot take him with us," replied Dharmanand. "He will be a burden on us." "How can we leave him behind? He grew up with us," said Vidhyanand. "We will share what ever we earn equally among the four of us.&qu

Elephant and Friends One day an elephant wandered into a forest in search of friends. He saw a monkey on a tree. "Will you be my friend?" asked the elephant. Replied the monkey, "You are too big. You can not swing from trees like me." Next, the elephant met a rabbit. He asked him to be his friends. But the rabbit said, "You are too big to play in my burrow!" Then the elephant met a frog. "Will you be my friend? He asked. "How can I?" asked the frog. "You are too big to leap about like me." The elephant was upset. He met a fox next. "Will you be my friend?" he asked the fox. The fox said, "Sorry, sir, you are too big." The next day, the elephant saw all the animals in the forest running for their lives. The elephant asked them what the matter was. The bear replied, "There is a tier in the forest. He's trying to gobble us all up!" The animals all ran away to hide. The elephan

A Pound of Butter (Honesty): There was a farmer who sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting the right amount, which he wasn’t. Angry about this, he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure to weight the butter. The farmer replied, “Honor, I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.” The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?” The farmer replied; “Your Honor, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.” Moral of the story: In life, you get what you give. Don’t try and cheat others.

The Dreaming Priest Long time ago there lived a priest who was extremely lazy and poor at the same time. He did not want to do any hard work but used to dream of being rich one day. He got his food by begging for alms. One morning he got a pot of milk as part of the alms. He was extremely delighted and went home with the pot of milk. He boiled the milk, drank some of it and put the remaining milk in a pot. He added slight curds in the pot for converting the milk to curd. He then lay down to sleep. Soon he started imagining about the pot of curd while he lay asleep. He dreamed that if he could become rich somehow all his miseries would be gone. His thoughts turned to the pot of milk he had set to form curd. He dreamed on; "By morning the pot of milk would set, it would be converted to curd. I would churn the curd and make butter from it. I would heat the butter and make ghee out of it. I will then go to that market and sell that ghee, and make some money. With that money i

The Group of Frogs (Encouragement): As a group of frogs was traveling through the woods, two of them fell into a deep pit. When the other frogs crowded around the pit and saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that there was no hope left for them. However, the two frogs decided to ignore what the others were saying and they proceeded to try and jump out of the pit. Despite their efforts, the group of frogs at the top of the pit were still saying that they should just give up. That they would never make it out. Eventually, one of the frogs took heed to what the others were saying and he gave up, falling down to his death. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time. Moral of the

Thinking Out of the Box (Creative Thinking): In a small Italian town, hundreds of years ago, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loan-shark was a very old, unattractive looking guy that just so happened to fancy the business owner’s daughter. He decided to offer the businessman a deal that would completely wipe out the debt he owed him. However, the catch was that we would only wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. Needless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust. The loan-shark said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, the debt would be wiped, but the loan-shark would then marry her. If it was white, the debt would also be wiped, but the daughter wouldn’t have to marry the loan-shark. Standing on a pebble-strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan-shark bent over and p