The Story of Two Brothers

 Hello, everyone.

    I am reposting this story as for some reason it has been deleted.

    It's the story of two brothers who had some misunderstanding. Read on and find out how they got rid of that misunderstanding.

  

 THE STORY OF TWO BROTHERS

    Once upon a time, there were two brothers who lived in India. They had a grocery shop in one of the villages. The older brother whose name was Mahesh had a very lazy wife and the younger brother whose name was Ramesh had a very hardworking wife. They sold all sorts of foodstuff in their shop, e.g. lentils, beans, rice, sugar and so on. Both the brothers worked very hard.

    They both lived in separate houses. They trusted each other very much. The younger brother Ramesh kept the keys to the shop as he always managed to get to the shop very early and open it. The older brother Mahesh would come a bit later.

    Now, one day it happened that it was lunch time and both went home. The Mahesh had bought some sweetmeat earlier to take at home and he had forgotten that in the shop. He remembered that when he had nearly reached his home. He wanted the sweetmeat at lunch and so he turned and went to his brother’s house.

   He knocked on the door and his sister-in-law opened the door. She welcomed him warmly and led him to the dining room. What he saw there made him stand rooted to the spot. There were all kinds of dishes on the table. There was rice, curry, chapattis and sweet pasta as well. He went very pale and then anger surged in him because he thought that his brother had been stealing from the shop as his wife had cooked so many dishes, but he did not say anything.

    “Welcome, Brother!” Ramesh said, warmly. “Have lunch with us.”

    Mahesh not wanting to show his anger, just made an excuse.

    “No, I’m sorry I can’t have lunch with you,” he said. “My wife will be waiting for me. I just came to ask you to give me the keys as I have forgotten to take my sweetmeat that I bought in the shop.”

    “Of course,” said the younger brother. “Here you are. But why do you look so pale? Is anything wrong?”

    “No, nothing is wrong;” he said with a wry smile and added scornfully. “What can be wrong when your much loved ones stab you in the back.”

    Ramesh did not understand why his brother said such a thing, but he did not say anything and just kept quiet.

    Mahesh took the keys and went away.

    Now, what had happened? The brothers kept all the sacks of rice, lentils and other stuff on a sort of a wooden platform. When they were serving the customers some of the food was bound to fall down on it. The brothers used to collect all the stuff that had fallen on the platform and divided it between the two and took that home to their wives.

    Mahesh was shocked because his wife cooked the same thing every day. The reason being she was a lazy woman and she just tossed all the grains in a pot and boiled them together with some spices. When the older brother asked her why she did not cook anything apart from that she would make an excuse and say, “ How can I cook anything else? All the grains are mixed and it is next to impossible to separate them.”

   That is why when he saw his brother Ramesh eating all the good things he thought surely he was stealing from the shop. That is why he commented about being stabbed in the back.

    Now Mahesh began to treat his brother Ramesh very badly. He was scornful to him and he took away the keys from him because he thought that he came back later and took all the things that he wanted and that was why his wife was able to cook everything.

   

    Ramesh could not understand Mahesh’s behavior. It upset him and hurt him deeply to think that his own brother should treat him like this when he had done nothing wrong whatsoever.

    One day, the rice was almost finished in the shop and Ramesh reminded Mahesh about it.

    “Brother, the rice is almost finished in the shop,” he told Mahesh. “Don’t you think we should go and buy that as quickly as possible? We don’t want our customers to turn away.”

    “And why shouldn’t it get finished so fast?” He asked with a snort. “The way it is being used by us is enough to finish the whole shop.”

   This hurt the younger brother very much. He couldn’t take it anymore.

    “Brother, with due respect,” he said, “Why are you being so cruel to me? What have I done to deserve such treatment?”

   

 “Why don’t you ask yourself?” Mahesh replied. “You are enjoying yourself, aren’t you? You are eating all the good food that you steal from the shop.”

     “I don’t understand,” replied Ramesh very much, puzzled. “Why would I want to steal when what we share in the evenings is more than enough for us?”

    “Well, then, how come your wife is able to cook different kinds of food every day?” Mahesh asked, angrily. “We take all the mixed stuff. The rice and the lentils and everything are all mixed up. Can you explain that?”

    Now it dawned on Ramesh why his brother was angry. He smiled at his brother.

    “Do you want to know the secret of my wife’s cooking?” Ramesh asked. “You just go to my house in the afternoon and you’ll get the answer.”

    That afternoon, Mahesh made an excuse of going to see his sister-in-law on accounts of not seen her for a very long time.

    When he reached there he knocked on the door and his brother’s wife opened the door. She welcomed him warmly and offered him a seat. He went inside and he saw something very puzzling there. There was a big round tray on the floor and in this was the entire foodstuff the brothers divided in the evenings. After welcoming the brother she took the tray and sat down with it in her lap. Around her were many small bowls into which she was separating and putting different kinds of grains.

    “What are you doing, Sister-in-law?” he asked her.

    “I’m separating the grains so that I can cook many kinds of food,” she explained. “I get rice, lentils and wheat by doing that. Once I have separated the wheat from the other grains I will take it to the mill to grind it into flour so that I can make chapattis, you see.”

    Mahesh felt as if the earth would give way and he would fall in it. He felt so ashamed of himself. He understood now how his brother was able to eat good food and he couldn’t. His own wife was so lazy she just cooked everything together and did not bother to separate to make anything else. He felt a lump come into his throat and had to swallow hard.

    “I think I’ll go now,” he said. “I just came to ask after your health. Goodbye.”

    With that he left leaving his sister-in-law very much puzzled. She shrugged her shoulders and carried on with her work.

 

    He went straight to the shop and apologized to his brother for his mistake.

    “I am so sorry brother for being so mean to you” he said lowering his head. “It never occurred to me you could do anything with the foodstuff we got. I have gotten tired of eating the same things every day. Sorry brother it won’t happen again.” 

    “It is alright, brother,” said Ramesh. “It happens. How about if I invited you and my sister-in-law for dinner on Saturday?”

    Mahesh smiled and agreed.

    “Thank you, brother” said he. “I would certainly like to come and eat my sister-in-law’s cooking. Who could resist that?”

    Then both the brothers laughed.

    From that day onwards, the brothers always asked each other if they were in doubt about anything at all.

The Arrogant Camel

Hello, everyone.

    Today I am going to tell the story of a very arrogant camel. He thought he was the most beautiful animal in the whole kingdom. He made fun of all the animals. All the animals were at the end of their tether. They did not know what to do.

    Read on and find out how he stopped behaving arrogantly and became a humble animal.

The Arrogant Camel

    As you know a camel is not particularly a very beautiful animal. They are very humble creatures but the story that I am going to tell you is of a very arrogant and rude camel. He thought he was the most magnificent creature in the whole animal kingdom.

    When he saw a rabbit he would laugh at him and say, “Look at your ears, they are so long and ugly.”

    The rabbit would become very angry and run away from there.

    When he saw an elephant he would laugh at him and say, “Look at your trunk, it is so long and ugly and look at your ears, they are so big.”

    When he saw giraffe he would make fun of him and say, “Look at your neck, it is so long and ugly. Look at your legs they are so long and shapeless.”

    A giraffe is a very docile animal and he would just walk away in a huff.

    When he saw a duck he would laugh at him and say, “Look at your feet they are so ugly.”

    The duck would get very angry and go away quacking.

    This way he made fun of all the animals. The animals got so fed up that they just try to avoid him altogether. When this happened the camel found himself a very lonely creature. There was no-one to talk to or play with.

    One day, he felt very thirsty after having a meal of fine lush grass that grew there. As always he ate alone and then he went to drink water in the lake. The lake that day was very calm and it looked like glass. As he bent his head to drink he got the shock of his life. He saw a very ugly animal looking back at him. He screamed and ran away!

    As he was running away he met an elephant.

    “What’s the matter?” asked the elephant. “Why do you look so scared?”

    “There is a very ugly creature in the lake,” he said, panting. “Don’t go there.”

    “An ugly creature?” the elephant was puzzled. “I am always drinking water and I have never seen any ugly creatures there. Show me where it is.”

    “I am scared to go there,” said the camel.

    “Just show me where it is,” said the elephant and so the camel led the way slowly to the lake and showed him.

   The elephant looked but he did not see anything except his own reflection.

   “I don’t see anything scary there,” he said.

    The camel bent down look and he screamed, “Look there it is staring at me!”

    The elephant understood now what was happening and he started laughing. He laughed so loud that the whole jungle echoed with his laughter!

    “Why are you laughing?” the camel asked him. “Aren’t you afraid of the creature?”

    “The creature you are referring to is your own reflection,” said the elephant wiping his tears.

    By now all the animals had gathered round to see why the elephant was laughing. When they heard what he had to say they all started laughing.

    “My reflection?” asked the camel, horrified. “But it couldn’t be. Am I so ugly?”

    “That is right,” replied the rabbit who had been listening to everything. “You have been making fun of us but you had no idea how many faults you have.”

    “That is right,” said the giraffe. “Look at your hump, it is so ugly and look at your legs they are so crooked.”

    “Please, stop,” said the camel, crying in shame. “I had no idea I was so ugly. I am so sorry. I will never make fun of anyone again.”

    “Nobody is ugly,” said the owl, wisely. “We are all beautiful in our own ways. You should be thankful for who you are. You should never call anybody ugly.”

    From that day onwards, the camel was a different animal. He became humble and was friendly now. He no longer teased anyone.

    I hope you have liked my story. If you have, please, leave me a comment to let me know. Thanks.

The Sour Grapes

Hello, everyone.

    The story that I am going to tell you is a story that most of you must have heard it.

    It’s a story of a fox who wanted to eat the grapes that were growing on a high wall. Read on and find out what happens.

The Sour Grapes

    Once there was a fox. He was feeling very hungry and was trying to get something to eat. As he was walking he came across a high wall. Now on this wall there was a beautiful grape vine growing on it with nice juicy looking grapes.

    The fox looked at the grapes and his mouth watered. He went nearer and jumped to get at them but they were very high up on the wall. He tried to jump higher and higher but it was no good.

    He looked around to see if he could find anything to stand on. At first he did not see anything then he noticed a gate in the wall and near the gate was a stool standing there. He went to it and pushed with his nose and pulled with his mouth to get it under the grapes. At last he succeeded. Once the stool was under the grapevine he jumped onto it and tried to reach the grapes but they were still high up. He tried to jump to catch them but when he did so he fell down. He tried again and again and each time he fell on the ground. Seeing he just could not get those grapes he gave up.

    “Who wants those grapes, anyway?” he said, to himself. “They are sour grapes.”

    And with that he went away.

    Thank you for reading my story. If you have liked it please write a comment and share my stories. You can follow my page on facebook.

    I post a story every Monday and Thursday.

Little Ali Learns a lesson

Hello, everyone,

    Today, I am going to tell you another of little Ali’s stories. Yes that brown eyed, chubby cheeked adorable little boy with tufts of brown hair.

    Read on and find out what happens when he tries to copy a spoilt little boy.

Little Ali Learns a Lesson

    Once, Ali’s mother took him along to visit a friend of hers. Ali’s mother’s friend greeted them very nicely and then she invited them inside the house. They went in and sat down in the sitting room. It was a very nice big spacious room. Everything was nice except that it was littered with toys of all sorts, teddy bears, several train sets, cars, legos and many other things. Little Ali’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets! He had never seen so many toys in his life! He got up and went to play with a train set. Seeing this his mother called him at once.

    “Ali, behave yourself, dear,” she said in a voice she used when she did not want him to do something. “Come here and sit down.”

    Ali came away reluctantly. Seeing this Ali’s mother’s friend just laughed and said, “Oh no, please let him play. These are my son Shaheed’s toys. Wait let me get him.”

    So she went out of the room calling his name. Soon she came back with a little boy of about Ali’s age. He was thin and slightly taller than Ali. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed because of his disheveled black hair. He had a rebellious look in his big black eyes. Ali took an instant dislike to him.

    “Shaheed, this is Ali,” she said, “aren’t you going to greet him?”

    “No,” said at once, “I don’t like him.”

    With that he turned and went to play with his toys. His mother went up to him and asked once more to greet the guests but he did not even answer her. His mother came and sat down on the sofa opposite and laughed.

    “He is in one of his moods today,” she said and laughed again.

    Soon Ali’s mother and her friends were talking when suddenly Shaheed came to his mother and pointed at Ali who had slid down from his seat and had tried to join Shaheed to play with the toys.

    “I don’t want him to play my toys,” he said.

    “Honey, it’s alright,” his mother said. “He wants to be your friend. Why don’t you want to play with him?”

    “No,” he said, and with that he went and pushed Ali. Ali fell down with a thud knocking his head on the floor. Ali’s mother ran and picked him up and rubbed his head where he had hurt himself. Ali began to cry.

    “I am so sorry,” Ali’s mother’s friend apologized. “Is he hurt badly?”

    “Just a bump,” Ali’s mother replied rather coldly. “I think I will go now. My husband will be home any minute.”

    With that she said goodbye to her friend and left.

    Now Ali had observed how Shaheed had behaved. He saw that when he demanded something he got it.

    Now the next day it was nearing lunch time and he wanted to go out and play. He knew if he asked his mother she would not let him go as it would soon be time to eat. But he was determined to go and so he went to his mother.

    “Mother, I want to go out and play,” he demanded as he had seen Shaheed demand.

    “You know you can’t go out to play at this time,” she said, surprised that Ali should even come and ask him knowing the rules.

    “But I want to go out to play,” he said again in a very demanding voice.

    His mother looked at him and saw that he was standing exactly how Shaheed had been standing his arms jutting out slightly and trying to look mean. Now she understood what it was all about. She did not say a word she just took him by his arm and led him to the store and put him there and closed the door.

    “When you behave yourself I will let you out,” she said in a very calm manner.

    Now, here seeing himself in the dark store scared little Ali very much and he started to bawl loudly.

    “Let me out, Mommyyyy…………..” he yelled and sobed. “Mommyyy………………….. let me out!”

    His mother let him cry for a minute or so and then asked, “Will you do that again?”

    “No, Mommy,” he said, sobbing.

    “Say sorry then I will let you out,” his mother said.

    “I am sorry, Mommy,” little Ali said in a small voice.

    Then, his mother opened the door of the store and let him out. At once he jumped in his mother’s arms.

    “Will you do that again?” his mother asked him gently.

    Little Ali shook his head and hid his face in her neck. His mother kissed him and then smiled.

    “You should never copy anyone,” she said, “Now can I have a smile from my little Ali.”

    Ali gave his mother a tearful smile.  

    “Now, your father will be here soon,” she said, “let’s set the table, shall we?”

    Little Ali smiled and ran to help his mother.

    From that day onwards he never demanded anything that he knew he could not get.