The wise smuggler

A Tale from the Middle East

A clever smuggler came to the border with a donkey. The donkey's back was heavily laden with straw. The official at the border was suspicious and pulled apart the man's bundles till there was straw all around, but not a valuable thing in the straw was found. "But I'm certain you're smuggling something," the official said, as the man crossed the border.

Now each day for ten years the man came to the border with a donkey. Although the official searched and searched the straw bundles on the donkey's back, he never could find anything valuable hidden in them.

Many years later, after the official had retired, he happened to meet that same smuggler in a marketplace and said, "Please tell me, I beg you. Tell me, what were you smuggling? Tell me, if you can."

"Donkeys," said the man.

moral
don't air your views.
don't always be quick to announce your intentions, let your work speak for you.

The pompous Snake without hand

A snake was boasting and shouting unnecessarily in a classroom of all other animals "i am poisonous, am poisonous, am poisonous and the senior prefect Mr bear snarled "audience class!
 if you know you are poisonous, raise your hands then..."

The tale of the tortoise and the hare

One day a rabbit was boasting about how fast he could run. He was laughing at the turtle for being so slow. Much to the rabbit’s surprise, the turtle challenged him to a race. The rabbit thought this was a good joke and accepted the challenge. The fox was to be the umpire of the race. As the race began, the rabbit raced way ahead of the turtle, just like everyone thought. The rabbit got to the halfway point and could not see the turtle anywhere. He was hot and tired and decided to stop and take a short nap. Even if the turtle passed him, he would be able to race to the finish line ahead of him. All this time the turtle kept walking step by step by step. He never quit no matter how hot or tired he got. He just kept going. However, the rabbit slept longer than he had thought and woke up. He could not see the turtle anywhere! He went at full-speed to the finish line but found the turtle there waiting for him.
Moral:
Never underestimate your opponent's ability even if he appears weak.

The wolf and the crane

Once upon a time, a wolf was feasting too greedily and quickly, and a bone had stuck crosswise in his throat. He could get it neither up nor down, and of course he could not eat a thing. Naturally that was an awful state of affairs for a greedy Wolf.

So away he hurried to the Crane. He was sure that she, with her long neck and bill, would easily be able to reach the bone and pull it out.

“I will reward you very handsomely,” said the Wolf, “if you help pull out the bone in my throat.”

The Crane, as you can imagine, was very uneasy about putting her head in a Wolf’s throat. But she was grasping in nature, so she did what the Wolf asked her to do.

When the Wolf felt relieved he started to walk away.

“But what about my reward!” called the Crane anxiously.

“What!” snarled the Wolf, whirling around. “Haven’t you got it? Isn’t it enough that I let you take your head out of my mouth without snapping it off?”
Morals

Never expect  reward for serving the wicked.

The story of the eagle and the beetle

An Eagle was chasing a hare, which was running for it dear life and

was at her wits' end to know where to turn for help. luckily she espied a Beetle, and begged it to aid her. So when the Eagle came up the Beetle warned her not to touch the hare, which was under its protection. But the Eagle never noticed the Beetle because it was so small, seized the hare and ate her up. The  Beetle was bitter about this total neglect and letdown it got from the eagle and decides to revenge someday as it keeps an eye on the Eagle's nest. 

whenever the Eagle laid an egg, the beetle climb up  to where the egg is and rolled it out of the nest and broke it.

At last the Eagle got so worried over the loss of her eggs that she went up to Jupiter, who is the special protector of Eagles, and begged him to give her a safe place to nest in; so he let her lay her eggs in his lap. But the Beetle noticed this and made a ball of dirt the size of an Eagle's egg, and flew up and deposited it in Jupiter's lap. When Jupiter saw the dirt, he stood up to shake it out of his robe, and, forgetting about the eggs, he shook them

out too, and they were broken just as before.

Ever since then, they say, Eagles never lay their eggs at the

season when Beetles are about.

Moral lesson 

Always be mindful of how you treat others, you may have all it takes to win the war but do have a rethink because sometimes even the weakest may find means to avenge a wrong.