One day, a stag was drinking from a crystal clear spring.

He saw himself clearly reflected in the still water.

He admired his magnificent antlers, the way they arched and curved. He loved how powerful they made him look.

But then he looked at his legs. He hated how thin and spindly they looked. He despised the way they looked like stilts with knobbly bits.

“How is it”, he sighed, “that I have such a glorious par of antlers, but am cursed with such ugly, useless legs?”

Just then, he heard a pack of wolves howling nearby.

They had picked up his scent and were closing in.

He raced off, with his legs taking him further and further out of reach of the wolves.

But just as he thought he had escaped into the safety of the forest, his broad antlers caught in the branches of a tree.

Pretty soon, he was surrounded by the wolves, unable to escape.

It was at that point that the stag realised the legs of which he was so ashamed, were in fact his greatest asset. They would have saved him if it weren’t for the useless ornaments on his head.

Moral: We often think too highly of the ornamental and despise the useful

Once upon a time, a wolf resolved to disguise his appearance in order to obtain food more easily. After killing a sheep, the wolf cut off the skin and draped it over his body as a camouflage. Encased in the skin of the sheep, he went out with the flock, deceiving the shepherd by his costume.

In the evening, the wolf was shut up by the shepherd in the fold, the gate was closed and the entrance made thoroughly secure. Later that night, the shepherd decided to kill a sheep for his dinner. But instead of catching a sheep, he mistakenly chose the sleeping wolf. Even before realizing his error, the shepherd killed the wolf, only realizing it when he went to skin the wolf for dinner.

Moral: If you go looking for trouble, trouble will find you.

A SNAKE, having made his hole close to the porch of a cottage, inflicted a mortal bite on the Cottager’s infant son.

Grieving over his loss, the Father decided to kill the Snake. The next day, when the Snake came out of its hole for food, the Laborer took up his axe, but by swinging too hastily, missed its head and cut off only the end of its tail.

After some time the Laborer, afraid that the Snake would bite him also, endeavored to make peace, and placed some bread and salt in the hole.

The Snake hissed: “There can never be peace between us; for whenever I see you I shall remember the loss of my tail, and whenever you see me you will be thinking of the death of your son.”

Moral: No one really forgets their injuries in the presence of the person who caused the injury.

A Lion loved the daughter of a woodcutter and demanded her hand in marriage. The Father, unwilling to grant, and yet afraid to refuse his request, hit upon this expedient to rid himself of his difficulties.

He expressed his willingness to accept the Lion as the suitor of his daughter on one condition: that the Lion allowed the Father to extract his teeth, and cut off his claws, as his daughter was fearfully afraid of both. The Lion cheerfully agreed to the proposal.

But when the toothless, clawless Lion returned to repeat his request, the Woodman, no longer afraid, set upon him with his club, and drove him away into the forest.

Moral: Don’t give away an essential part of yourself for the sake of love.

A Boy put his hand into a pitcher full of filberts. He grasped as many as he could possibly hold, but when he tried to pull out his hand, he was prevented from doing so by the neck of the pitcher.

Unwilling to lose his filberts, and yet unable to withdraw his hand, he burst into tears and bitterly lamented his disappointment. A bystander said to him, “Be satisfied with half the quantity, and you will easily get your hand out.”

Moral:Do not attempt too much at once.