The Fox Without a Tail

   Fox was once caught in a trap. It was only after a tough struggle that she could get free. But, to her sorrow, her beautiful tail had been cut off and left in the trap.

   "How ugly I shall look!" moaned the fox, " won't the other foxes laugh at me ?"

   Thinking hard,the fox hit upon a plan to save herself from being laughed at.She called a meeting of his friends and said, "Brothers! have you ever wondered why after all, we carry these long tails?" Let us cut them off and be free from their nuisance."

   But the other foxes had noticed her cut-off tail. They laughed aloud and replied, "You used to say that tails looked very fine when your own was all right. Now that you have lost yours, you want us to lose ours too."

MORAL : Dirty tricks seldom work.

Tree and the Reedes

   The Oak tree always thought that he was far stronger than the reeds. He said to himself "I stand upright in a storm. I don't bend my head in fear every time the wind blows. But these reeds are really so weak."

   That very night blew a storm and the mighty oak tree was uprooted.

   "Good God!" sighed the reeds, "our way is better. We bend but we don't break."

MORAL : Pride hath a fall

   Once a hare was roaming near a lake in a forest. Suddenly he saw a tortoise and mocked at him saying - "Hurry up, you slow coach! Don't you find life very dull taking so long to cover a few yards? I could have run to the other side of the lake by now."

   The tortoise felt teased and dared the hare to a race. The race was to be through the wood to a fixed goal.

   The hare agreed laughingly. In a few minute she was away and out of sight.

   "What a funny race it is!" he said to himself , "I am already half -way through.But it is too-too cold; why not have a nap in the warm sunshine?"

   The tortoise walked steadily on and on. In a short time , he passed by the sleeping hare.

   The hare slept far longer then he had intended .When he woke up at last, he looked around in surprise and said to himself," Not even a sigh of the poor tortoise anywhere so far; I had better trot along and finish the race."

   The hare ran to the goal. He was amazed to see all the animals cheering the tortoise who had arrived just a minute earlier. how ashamed he felt indeed!

MORAL : Slow and steady wins the race.