1.

The Princess and the Pea – Nàng công chúa và

hạt đậu
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess;
but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the
world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There
were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they
were real ones. There was always something about them that was not
as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would
have liked very much to have a real princess.

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and
lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking
was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good
gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The
water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of
her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a
real princess.

“Well, we’ll soon find that out,” thought the old queen. But she said
nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead,
and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid
them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the
mattresses.

On this the princess had to lie all night.

In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

“Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night.
Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something
hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”

Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the
pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down
beds. Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.

So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real
princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be
seen, if no one has stolen it.

There, that is a true story.

Once upon a time there lived a poor widow and her son Jack. One
day, Jack’s mother told him to sell their only cow. Jack went to the
market and on the way he met a man who wanted to buy his cow. Jack
asked,

– “What will you give me in return for my cow?”

The man answered, “I will give you five magic beans!”

Jack took the magic beans and gave the man the cow. But when he
reached home, Jack’s mother was very angry. She said, “You fool! He
took away your cow and gave you some beans!” She threw the beans
out of the window. Jack was very sad and went to sleep without
dinner.

The next day, when Jack woke up in the morning and looked out of the
window, he saw that a huge beanstalk had grown from his magic
beans! He climbed up the beanstalk and reached a kingdom in the
sky. There lived a giant and his wife. Jack went inside the house and
found the giant’s wife in the kitchen. Jack said:

– “Could you please give me something to eat? I am so hungry!” The

kind wife gave him bread and some milk.”

While he was eating, the giant came home. The giant was very big and
looked very fearsome. Jack was terrified and went and hid inside. The
giant cried:

– “Fee-fifo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be

he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!”

The wife said, “There is no boy in here!” So, the giant ate his food and
then went to his room. He took out his sacks of gold coins, counted
them and kept them aside. Then he went to sleep. In the night, Jack
crept out of his hiding place, took one sack of gold coins and climbed
down the beanstalk.

At home, he gave the coins to his mother. His mother was very happy
and they lived well for sometime. Climbed the beanstalk and went to
the giant’s house again. Once again, Jack asked the giant’s wife for
food, but while he was eating the giant returned. Jack leapt up in fright
and went and hid under the bed. The giant cried:

– “Fee-fifo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be

he dead, I’ll grind his bones to make my bread!”
The wife said, “There is no boy in here!” The giant ate his food and
went to his room. There, he took out a hen. He shouted, “Lay!” and the
hen laid a golden egg. When the giant fell asleep, Jack took the hen
and climbed down the beanstalk. Jack’s mother was very happy with
him.

After some days, Jack once again climbed the beanstalk and went to
the giant’s castle. For the third time, Jack met the giant’s wife and
asked for some food. Once again, the giant’s wife gave him bread and
milk. But while Jack was eating, the giant came home. “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I
smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll grind
his bones to make my bread!” cried the giant. “Don’t be silly! There is
no boy in here!” said his wife.

The giant had a magical harp that could play beautiful songs. While
the giant slept, Jack took the harp and was about to leave. Suddenly,
the magic harp cried, “Help master! A boy is stealing me!” The giant
woke up and saw Jack with the harp. Furious, he ran after Jack. But
Jack was too fast for him. He ran down the beanstalk and reached
home. The giant followed him down. Jack quickly ran inside his house
and fetched an axe. He began to chop the beanstalk. The giant fell
and died. Jack and his mother were now very rich and they lived
happily ever after.
 3.5. The horse, hunter and stag a quarrel
A Quarrel had arisen between the Horse and the Stag, so the Horse
came to a hunter to ask his help to take revenge on the Stag.

The Hunter agreed, but said: “If you desire to conquer the Stag, you
must permit me to place this piece of iron between your jaws, so that I
may guide you with these reins, and allow this saddle to be placed
upon your back so that I may keep steady upon you as we follow after
the enemy.”

The Horse agreed to the conditions, and the Hunter soon saddled and
bridled him.

Then with the aid of the Hunter the Horse soon overcame the Stag,
and said to the Hunter: “Now, get off, and remove those things from
my mouth and back.”

“Not so fast, friend,” said the Hunter. “I have now got you under bit and
spur, and prefer to keep you as you are at present.”

If you allow men to use you for your own purposes, they will use you
for theirs

The Bear and the Bees

A Bear came across a log where a Swarm of Bees had nested to
make their honey. As he snooped around, a single little Bee flew out of
the log to protect the swarm. Knowing that the Bear would eat all the
honey, the little bee stung him sharply on the nose and flew back into
the log.

This flew the Bear into an angry rage. He swatted at the log with his
big claws, determined to destroy the nest of bees inside. This only
alerted the bees and quick as a wink, the entire swarm of bees flew
out of the log and began to sting the bear from head to heel. The Bear
saved himself by running to and diving into the nearest pond.

"It is better to bear a single injury in silence than to bring about a

thousand by reacting in anger."
 FRIENDSHIP IS A STRONG WEAPON
It was hot summer. A lion went to a pool to drink water. Just then a pig
also came there to quench his thirst. Both of them wanted to drink first.

They looked at each other with blood-shot eyes and attacked each
other with so much anger that soon they started bleeding.

Feeling tired, both stopped for a while to be fresh. Suddenly, they

heard the screams of vultures. They saw that a large number of
vultures were looking at them with longing eyes.

In no time, both the beasts understood that the vultures were waiting
for one of them to be killed by the other so that they might feed on his
dead body.

So both of them became friends, quenched their thirst and went away.

Thus, their friendship saved their lives.

GREED A CURSE
Once upon a time there lived a cloth merchant in a village with his wife
and two children. They were indeed quite well-off. They had a beautiful
hen which laid an egg everyday. It was not an ordinary egg, rather, a
golden egg. But the man was not satisfied with what he used to get
daily. He was a get rich-trice kind of a person.

The man wanted to get all the golden eggs from his hen at one single
go. So, one day he thought hard and at last clicked upon a plan. He
decided to kill the hen and get all the eggs together.

So, the next day when the hen laid a golden egg, the man caught hold
of it, took a sharp knife, chopped off its neck and cut its body open.

There was nothing but blood all around & no trace of any egg at all. He
was highly grieved because now he would not get even one single
egg.
His life was going on smoothly with one egg a day but now, he himself
made his life miserable. The outcome of his greed was that he started
becoming poorer & poorer day by day and ultimately became a
pauper. How jinxed and how much foolish he was.

So, the moral of the story is- one who desires more, loses all. One
should remain satisfied with what one gets.

The perfect heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town
proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A
large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.
There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was
the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very
proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said
"Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine."

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart. It was
beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been
removed and other pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there
were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep
gouges where whole pieces were missing. The people stared - how
can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man
looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and laughed.

"You must be joking," he said. "Compare your heart with mine, mine is
perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."

"Yes," said the old man, "Yours is perfect looking but I would never
trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I
have given my love. I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them,
and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty
place in my heart. But, because the pieces aren't exact, I have some
rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we
shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the
other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the
empty gouges - giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges
are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these
people, I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have
waiting. So now do you see what true beauty is?"
The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He
walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful
heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with
trembling hands. The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart
and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the
wound in the young man's heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were
some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect
anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's
heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.
How sad it must be to go through life with a whole heart.

My father

My father had given me so much, in so many ways, and at this

moment I also wanted to give something that I had to him. How about
the 100-meter gold medal? It was the highest achievement that I got in
my athletic. It is also the one thing I could give him to represent all the
good things we did together, all the positive things that had happened
to me because of him.

I had never before taken any of my medals out of the bank vault where
I usually kept them. But that day, on the way to the airport, I stopped at
the bank to get the medal, and carefully I put it in the pocket of my suit
jacket. I decided to take it to New Jersey, my home - for Dad.

The day of the funeral, when our family was viewing the body for the
last time, I pulled out the medal and respectfully placed in my father’s
hand. My mother asked me if I was sure I wanted to bury the medal,
and I was. It would be my father’s as I was going to be with him
forever. “But I’m going to get another one,” I told my mother. Turning to
my father, I said, “Don’t worry. I’m going to get another one.” That was
a promise - to myself and to Dad as well. He was lying there so
peacefully, his hands resting on his chest in release. When I placed
the medal in his hand, it neatly fit perfectly.

Yes, it really belonged to my father from that day on.

Pencil and Eraser

Pencil: I'm sorry

Eraser: For what? You didn't do anything wrong.

Pencil: I'm sorry because you get hurt because of me. Whenever I
made a mistake, you're always there to erase it. But as you make my
mistakes vanish, you lose a part of yourself. You get smaller and
smaller each time.

Eraser: That's true. But I don't really mind. You see, I was made to do
this. I was made to help you whenever you do something wrong. Even
though one day, I know I'll be gone and you'll replace me with a new
one, I'm actually happy with my job. So please, stop worrying. I hate
seeing you sad.

I found this conversation between the pencil and the eraser very
inspirational. Parents are like the eraser whereas their children are the
pencil. They're always there for their children, cleaning up their
mistakes. Sometimes along the way, they get hurt, and become
smaller / older, and eventually pass on. Though their children will
eventually find someone new (spouse), but parents are still happy with
what they do for their children, and will always hate seeing their
precious ones worrying, or sad. All my life, I've been the pencil. And it
pains me to see the eraser that is my parents getting smaller and
smaller each day. For I know that one day, all that I'm left with would
be eraser shavings and memories of what I used to have.

"We never know the love of our parents for us till we have become
parents."

Heaven and hell

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,

'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle
of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a
large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's
mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They
appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long
handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to
reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle
was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into
their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

The Lord said, 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the
same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large
pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were
equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people
were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, 'I don't understand.'

'It is simple,' said the Lord. 'It requires but one skill. You see they have
learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Who you are makes a difference

One night a man came home to his 14 –year-old son and sat him
down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I
was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and he told
me that he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being creative
genius. The blue ribbon that says 'Who I am makes a difference'. Then
he gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else
special to honor. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about
whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you.

My days are really hectic, and when I come home, I don't pay a lot of
attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting enough
good grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but
somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know
that you do make a difference to me. Beside your mother, you are the
most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you".

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying.
His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said, through his
broken tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad,
because I didn't think you loved me. Now I don't need to do that."

-Helice Bridges
Love cures people –both the ones who give it and the ones who
receive it.

-Karl Menninger

Unconditional love Tình yêu vô điều kiện

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in
Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to
bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."

"There's something you should know the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in
the fighting. He stepped on a landmine and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere
else to go, and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live." "No,
Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."

"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with such a
handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we
can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come
home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their
son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was
suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city
morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror
they also discovered something they didn't know, their son had only one arm and
one leg.
The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are
good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us
or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren't
as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. Thankfully, there's someone who won't
treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes
us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.