Aesop's Fables

Aesop was a Greek story teller. It is believed that Aesop lived for many years as a slave and earned his freedom by narrating the famous fables. It is also said that he even went on to serve as advisor to a king.

A Fable is a short story which generally has animals as characters and convey a moral.

The stories about animals and foolish humans told by Aesop are how referred as Aesop’s Fables. We all have grown up listening to little stories about animals and fairies many of which belong to the collection of Aesop’s Fables.

I think this was one of the earliest books I got for my son. He could not even understand what I read, but he thoroughly enjoyed the pictures of animals displayed along. Gradually, as he started catching up, this book became one of his favorites and I have lost the count of re-reading each story.

This series is a fine collection of 13 stories titled in the picture below.

The book also clearly mentions the moral each story intends to embark upon along with the meaning of few difficult words the child might be new with.

Now that the kiddo is grown up enough to read on his own, I am planning to take it out again and make him read by himself. I am sure he is going to enjoy it all over again.

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Aesop's fables

Here is a popular fable I have recited multiple times to my kids:

The Monkey and Crocodile

Once upon a time, there lived a monkey on a Jamun tree by a river. There was a crocodile in the river who became monkey’s friend.

The monkey used to share fruits from the tree with crocodile. Both played together and enjoyed the Janumns. One day the crocodile asked the if he could take a few fruits for his wife and children. The monkey said “Of course! Why not!”. And thus, he packed a lot of juicy jamuns for him.

The crocodile’s wife loved the jamuns. She had never tasted anything so sweet before. But she was not as kind and gentle as her husband and said, ‘If the jamuns are so tasty, imagine the taste of monkey who eats them every day!’

But the kind crocodile tried to explain to his wife that he could not possibly eat the monkey. ‘He is my best friend’, he said. But his greedy wife would not listen and to get her husband to do what she wanted she pretended to be ill. ‘I am dying and only a sweet monkey’s heart can cure me’, she cried to her husband. ‘If you love me you will get your friend the monkey and let me eat his heart.’

The poor crocodile did not to eat his friend. He tried to convince his wife, but she was adamant. At last he agreed to her and the next day when he went to meet the monkey, he told him that his wife loved his jamun’s and waned to invite him over dinner as a thank you gesture.

The monkey was very pleased but was sad too. Crocodile asked him why he was looking glum. The monkey said, “Dear friend, I cannot come as I don’t know swimming”. The crocodile said, ‘I’ll carry you on my back.’ The monkey happily agreed and jumped onto the crocodile’s back.

As the two friends were going in deep river, crocodile felt guilty and wanted to confess his bad doing to his friend. He told him has he has been tricked to come over as his wife wanted to eat him.

The monkey was frightened. Suddenly he had an idea! He said, “Crocodile dear, I would love to serve your wife, but the tastiest part of my body is my heart. But I have left that on the jamun tree. Shall we go back and get too for your wife?”.

The crocodile thought that when his wife would get to know that they did not get the tastiest part, she would get angrier. So, they turned and swam quickly to the jamun tree. The monkey jumped off his back and hopped high on the tree. He shouted, ‘I thought you were my friend. But you wanted to hurt me! Stupid crocodile, don’t you know that all our body parts always remain with us only? I will never trust you again or give you fruit from my tree. Go away and don’t come back again.’

The crocodile lost a friend also and the tasty fruits also. The monkey had saved himself because he had used his mind to think quickly.

Moral Of The Story

There are multiple morals which can be derived from this story. The one high-lighted in bold is my lifeline’s favorite:

·         Staying calm, and thinking can help you get out any difficult situation.

·         A quick wit can solve all problems.

·         Presence of mind often saves us.

·         Don’t underestimate yourself. There are bigger fools in this world.

·         Quick thinking and intelligence can beat physical strength.

·         A wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.