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Story Bigmouth Fox

Penguin, Reindeer and Fox were great friends. One day, Penguin and

Reindeer found a load of fruit, and decided to keep it a secret. On the

way, they met Fox, who seeing them so happy, asked them why. They

told him they couldn't say, because it was a secret, but Fox asked

them to trust him, so they told him about the fruit.

When they arrived at the village, Fox forgot about his promise, and told

everyone. When Penguin and Reindeer returned to the place where

they had found the fruit, the animals of the village had already been there

and eaten it all.

That same day, Penguin and Reindeer found another place full of food, and

the same thing happened again with Fox. Angered by these betrayals,

they decided to teach Fox a lesson. The next day they told Fox that they had

found a lake so full of fish that no effort was needed to catch them. Fox again

told everyone in the village about this. The next day, Fox came by, covered in

cuts and bruises. After telling all the animals about the lake full of fish,

everyone, including even the polar bears, had gone there. But, not finding

anything, they felt deceived, and had given Fox a good beating.

Fox learned that keeping people's trust is very important, and that to get it in

the first place you have to earn it with loyalty and always keeping your word.

Penguin and Reindeer devised another trick for Fox but, as he was no longer

a bigmouth, he did not betray them, and Penguin and Reindeer regained

their faith in Fox, thus forgiving him.

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Story A Pessimistic Dog

There was once a farmer who devised a competition between his dog and his

rabbit. He made a hole in one of his biggest fields, and hid a carrot and a

bone in it. He wanted to see which animal would find them first.

The rabbit was very cheerful and optimistic, and he threw himself into looking

for the carrot, digging here and there, totally convinced that he would

find it. But the dog was pessimistic, and after sniffing around for a bit, he lay

down on the ground and began to complain how difficult it was to find one

bone in such a big field.

The rabbit dug for hours, and with every new hole the dog complained

even more about how difficult this was, even for the rabbit. The rabbit, on the

other hand, thought that each hole dug was one hole less that needed

digging. When there was no place in the whole field left to dig, the

rabbit dug a tunnel to right under where the dog had been lying all that time.

There he found the carrot and the bone.

And this is how it was that the dog lost due to his pessimism.

Because, thanks to his great instinct, he had already found the right

place at the very beginning!

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Story The great palace of lies

Once upon a time all the spirits set about building two palaces; a palace of

truth, and a palace of lies. Every time a child told the truth, a brick was

created for the palace of truth. The spirits of truth would then take it and add

it to the growing walls.

In just the same way was the palace of lies built. Each brick was created

when a child told a lie. Both palaces were impressive - the best in the

world - and each group of spirits worked hard to try to make sure that their

own palace was the best. So much so that the lying spirits, who were much

more tricky and deceitful, sent a group of spirits to the world to get

children to tell more and more lies. These spirits were successful, and started

getting many more bricks. As a result, their palace became bigger and more

spectacular.

But one day, something strange happened in the palace of lies. One of

the bricks turned into a cardboard box. A little later another brick turned into

sand, and then another turned into glass, and smashed. And so, little by

little, it became clear that whenever a lie was discovered, the brick that

it had created changed its form, was crushed, and finally disappeared. In this

way, the palace of lies became weaker and weaker, and in the end it

completely fell to pieces.

At this, everyone, including the lying spirits, understood that you

cannot use lies for anything. They are never what they appear to be,

and so you never know what they will turn into.

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Story BBrave Cowardly Chief

rave Cowardly Chief

When young Nerino was made chief of the tribe, everyone expected

that – as was the custom on the island – he would direct his attention

to fighting the great fiery-eyed beast; a horrible creature that had

terrorised the tribespeople for centuries. Nerino had promised to slay

the beast and, though he was a good fighter, he seemed no better

than the others who had previously perished in the attempt. The tribe

reckoned that, as chief, he wouldn't last much more than a year. This

was about the amount of time needed to train and prepare a band of

warriors, prior to ascending to the volcano’s summit, where their

horrendous enemy lived. And once they got there, no matter how

strong or brave they were, all the warriors would be annihilated

within a couple of hours.

However, nothing was done. Nerino didn’t train any fighters, nothing out of

the ordinary was done, no new assault tactics were devised. When

summer came - the time the monster attacked most frequently, engulfing all

in flames from his fiery eye - all the tribe did was move their village.

Everyone looked worringly and insistently at Nerino. They demanded

that he fight, that he do something, that he should be brave and fulfil the

destiny of a chief. But Nerino simply said:

-“I shall defeat the beast, but now is not the time.”
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And so the years passed by, and Nerino became an old man. And though

they respected him as their chief, and his strategy of moving their village

around the island had saved many lives, all the people believed he was a

coward.

Yet, just when no-one expected it, Nerino finally assembled a squad of

fighters. He announced this suddenly, without warning, on a cold winter

night. Snow was rare on the island, but now it blanketed the ground, and

the band of warriors had to march out barefoot, with frozen feet. They

hurriedly ascended the volcano and, at the summit, they approached the

monster's cave. Nerino confidently entered, while his companions

performed the usual death preparation rituals, ready to leave this life…

When they were all inside they cave they saw old Nerino standing over the

beast. The monster was lying, curled up, on the ground, trembling and

groaning, close to death. Nerino and his warriors easily took the

creature prisoner.

On arriving back at the village, everyone wanted to hear about Nerino’s fight

with the monster. Not even the tiniest baby was absent when Nerino began

telling his story:

-“I never intended to fight against something so terrifying, and nor did I do

so today,"

he said, filling all with surprise and expectation. He continued.

-“Did none of you notice that the beast would never attack during the worst

days of winter? Or that, after an especially cold spell, his fire was never
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very strong, nor his attacks very damaging? For many years I was waiting for

a snow as heavy as this one. All along, we didn't need fighters; we needed

the cold. When we got to the volcano, the monster was so weak he

couldn't fight. Finally we have put an end to fighting and death. Now we

have the beast, and his fiery eye, at our service.”

Everyone congratulated the chief for his wisdom, particularly those who

had most criticised him for supposed cowardice.

And so it was that even the most impatient among the tribe learned that,

sometimes, patience can be much more useful than action, even if it means

you require the bravery to accept people treating you like a coward.

Thieves in the Garden

Story
Word had spread that there were thieves in the garden. Mr Beetle feared his

house would be next given that everybody knew he had just finished

gathering in his supply of food for the year.

That day he decided to be on the lookout from the window of his

house. Using a spyglass, he watched everything that moved and

saw a dangerous black spider and a pretty ladybird approach at the

same time. The beetle would have loved to go and speak to the ladybird but

he had to protect his house from the spider. The spider came closer so,

plucking up all his courage, he went out to the front door to confront him.
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It took a while to scare him off but eventually the beetle returned

triumphantly to his house, only to find that the door was open and all his

food had disappeared. When he stepped outside again, he had just enough

time to see the ladybird in the distance making off with all the food. 

Feeling upset, he went to report it to the garden police, who told him

that they had thought he might be next and so had sent their best

agent - a spider who had recently arrived as back-up - to help

him. That’s how the beetle learned not to judge others by their

appearance.

Story Duck Race

Quick and Quack were two brave, sporty little ducks who lived with their

mother. Both were really fast, and were always competing against each

other. They raced each other in all sorts or places. On land, sea and air;

running, swimming, or flying.

One day, after visiting their Uncle Ducklass upriver, Quick shouted "last

one home is a goose!" and both ducks swam quickly downriver. They both

knew the way well, but Quack had been preparing a trick for some time.

He had realised that the current in the middle of the river was stronger, and

would help him. So, even though Mother Duck had told them never to swim

in the middle of the river, Quack paddled over to it. "I'm old enough now

to swim here," he thought to himself.

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It wasn't long before he realised his mother had been right. He was going

much faster than Quick, and was developing a big lead. Quick was not

amused. He never disobeyed his mother, and now his obedience meant he

was going to lose the race! As they went on, the current got stronger.

Quack triumphantly crossed the finishing line, without realising he was

headed straight for a big whirlpool in the middle of the river. Before he could

react, there he was spinning around in it, unable to escape.

Getting him out of there was no easy matter. No duck was strong enough

to swim in those waters, and poor Quack kept swallowing water. The fact

that his head was spinning like a top didn't help matters much either.

Fortunately, a cow from a nearby farm came by and, seeing Quack,

waded in and rescued him, to prevent him from drinking all the water in the

river. When he was on dry ground, he remained dizzy for quite some

time. That provided quite a laugh for the various different animals that had

been watching.

That day, Quick understood that he had done well to listen to his

mother, even though at first it might have seemed the difficult option.

As for Quack... well... Quack could not forget that experience, even though

he wanted to. From then on, whenever he touched a drop of water, he

fell to the floor and spun round three times before being able to get up again.

Rainy days proved quite entertaining!