The Crane and the Crab

Once upon a time, an old crane decided to make it easy for itself to hunt fishes. He pretended to be sick and dejected. The crab was observing the crane for a while and asked him what was the matter with him because he didn’t hunt like he usually did and eat fishes. The crane fooled the crab by lying to him. He said he had overheard some fisherman planning to come to this lake soon and set up a big net to catch all the fishes and crabs. “So upon hearing this I am a bit devastated that there will be no more fish to eat in this lake soon!” replied the cunning old crane. The fishes and crab on hearing this begged the crane to help them get out of the lake and transport them to another lake before the fishermen came. The crane agreed and would daily take few fishes in her beak and pretend to transport them to another lake but he would eat them far away on a rock. One day the crab afraid for his life asked the crane to transport him too. The crane picked him in her beak and flew to the rock where all the dead fish remains laid. The evil crane was about to dash him on the rock to eat his meat when the crab asked the crane about how far the new lake was? the crane laughed and said “There is no lake and this is the rock where all your fish friends are resting and you will join them soon!” When the crab saw all the fishbones he realized that the crane had been fooling them and instantly grabbed the crane’s neck and squeezed it to death. The crab related the whole story about crane to his friends in the lake and he told them now that the crane is dead, they are safe as he saw through the crane’s greed and tricks just in time!

Wisdom, Life lessons and Rules-When faced with danger one must act swiftly to save oneself without hesitation.

Never trust friends who are not your well wishers

Evil doers will fall on their own because of their evil intentions.

Excessive greed will lead to unfavorable outcomes

A birthday surprise

Once upon a time, there was an old couple and it was the lady’s 90th birthday. She started to complain to her husband “I wish I had something nice to eat on my birthday and some money to fix the roof of this house and a baby to care for.” Her husband got up to go out too tired to soothe his complaining wife’s complains and at the door he found a beautiful pumpkin! He said “Now you have something nice to eat! Who could have put this pumpkin for us?”. When the lady opened the top of the pumpkin she found a baby inside the pumpkin and her second wish came true! and then as she tried to bathe the baby and clean the baby from all the pumpkin seeds the water drops started turning into gold! Her 3rd wish was coming true! So she sent her husband to get someone to fix the roof and get some food, now that she had enough money. Then she thought, “Why fix the roof I can have enough money to buy me a palace and a banquet so she started bathing the baby again! Her husband commented “The baby doesn’t need more cleaning and we have enough money to last us till we die we don’t need more money.” But the wife ignored her poor husband and she kept giving the baby more bath and more gold coins started filling the tub. Again she tried to give the baby another bath. This time the soapy bubbles got into the baby’s nose. The baby sneezed loudly and vanished and so did all the gold and what was left was only soapy water. Her birthday wish had come true but her greed had ruined everything!

Credits: Around the world in 80 tales by Saviour Pirotta

Wisdom, Life lessons and Rules- We must cherish all the gifts we have been gifted by God and not complain. When we have enough we must learn to be content. Greed only gets us into more unfavorable outcomes.