Once there was a shoemaker—a poor man with his wife and children, just like the son of Yusif il-Xatib (a shoemaker in the storyteller’s village), who is new to the craft. All day he mended shoes—save the listeners!—so he could make two or three piasters and buy bread...
Once upon a time, a king and queen lived happily together. One day, the King felt restless, and decided to wage war on a heathen lord, infamous for his cruelty and evil. The King gathered a great army, took leave from his wife, and set sail. When the King landed in...
Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife who were very poor and had nothing at all in their house. The wife, who was pregnant, gave birth to a son at ten o'clock at night, but she had nothing with which to wrap the tender babe. The poor father...
Lo-Sun was a blind boy and, like many others thus afflicted in China, he had no home, for his hard-hearted parents had driven him forth to beg his living. From morning till night he wandered along the city streets and country lanes, always carrying with him a blind...
There are places in China where the mountains reach all the way up to the clouds. High up on one of these mountains lived a wise old man. His name was Tian, which means “heaven.” There among the clouds lived Tian’s friends, the cranes. Tian fed them and...
A Jewish Tale: A pair of rabbis set out to raise some funds for a worthy cause. They approach a wealthy man whose generosity has become blocked, and one of the rabbis knew how to help him unstop it. How is receiving just as important as giving, in cultivating generosity in others and ourselves?
The song of the birds is a salute to life and in each song is a message of love.
Happy are they who can understand the notes trilled so clearly by the beautiful birds.
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One evening Vanyusha (Johnny) was sitting with his grandfather, and asked his grandfather: “Whence comes it that bears' paws are like our hands and feet?”
His grandfather replied: “Listen, Johnny. I will tell you what I have myself...
A Tale from Asia: A young man grows up to be a harpooner on a whaling ship. One day he suddenly discovers himself to be a whale—the very one he was setting out to kill. After this experience Eizo gives up whaling and becomes a Zen priest. If we could fully imagine the lives of animals we hunt and kill, (or raise and slaughter) would we not change our attitudes towards living beings?
Once upon a time, a very long time ago indeed, there lived a King who had made a vow never to eat bread or break his fast until he had given away a hundredweight of gold in charity.
So, every day, before King Karan—for that was his name—had his breakfast, the...
