Hello, little friends! Are you ready for a magical adventure of bedtime stories ? Tonight, we’re going on a journey to a world of dreams. We’ll meet brave knights, clever foxes, and even a grumpy troll! These stories will make you laugh, think, and maybe even giggle in your sleep.
Bedtime stories are more than just tales; they’re magical journeys that take us to far-off lands and introduce us to amazing characters. They’re a cozy way to wind down the day, and a chance to bond with our little ones.
So, snuggle up in your cozy bed, close your eyes, and let’s dive into the world of bedtime stories. Remember, every story is a seed that grows into a beautiful dream.
The Stranger in the Garden
Once upon a time, there was a man who had a big garden. He had planted many fruit trees and cared for them till they bore fruits. Now he wanted to harvest the fruits and sell them to make money for his family.
One fine day, while picking the fruits with his son, the man saw a stranger sitting on the branch of a tree and picking fruits. The man became angry and shouted, “Hey you! What are you doing on my tree? Aren’t you ashamed of stealing?”
The stranger sitting on the branch looked at the gardener, but didn’t reply, and continued picking the fruits. The gardener was very angry and shouted again, “For a whole year I have taken care of these trees. You have no right to take the fruits without my permission. So come down at once!”
The stranger on the tree answered, “Why should I come down? This is the garden of God and I am the servant of God, so I have the right to pick these fruits. You should not interfere with the work of God and his servant.”
The gardener was very surprised at this answer and thought of a plan. He told the stranger to come down from the tree. As the stranger climbed down the tree, the gardener tied him to the tree and began beating him with a stick. The stranger began to scream, “Why are you beating me? You have no right to do this.”
The gardener paid no attention and continued beating him. The stranger screamed, “Don’t you fear God? You are beating an innocent man. The gardener answered, “Why should I fear? This wood in my hand belongs to God and I am the servant of God. You shouldn’t interfere with the work of God and his servant.”
The stranger hesitated and then spoke, “Wait. Don’t beat me, I am sorry for taking the fruits. This is your garden and I should seek your permission before taking the fruits. So, please forgive me and set me free.” The gardener smiled and said, “Don’t use God’s name to justify your ill-conceived actions.”
Then the gardener untied him and let him go free.
Princess Of The Glass Hill
Once upon a time, a farmer had three sons. Jim, Ken, and Sam and a large field. He was a happy man except for one thing. In the last days of summer every year, something ate all his crops. He decided to talk to his sone about it.
A farmer- “My sons, I need your help. The end of summer is here and I am afraid, something will eat all our crops again. Find the way to protect it. You must guard the field every night till summer has passed.” Jim- “Okay father, I will guard it starting tonight.”
When night fell the oldest brother went to the field and stood guard. But suddenly he heard a loud noise. He shouted, “Who is there?” He got no response but the noise grew louder and louder. Sacred, Jim ran away from the field!
The next night, Ken went to the field to guard it. It had been not too long when suddenly there was a loud noise yet again. Ken shouted, “Hello, who is there? Come out now!” There was no answer except the noise continued. Scared, Ken too ran away from the field.
“Something is in the field! I can’t be heard!”, Ken told Jim and Sam. The youngest son Sam decided to take over from Ken and went to guard the field the next night. As he was doing his job he heard a loud sound. Sam- “There’s that loud sound that Ken and Jim described. Let me follow it.” Unafraid, Sam went to where the sound was coming from.
As he went further into the field he found the most beautiful, sparkling white horse that anybody couldn’t have ever seen. On its back was bronze armor suit. Sam went to the horse and patted him, “Hello there, you are so beautiful! Do you want a cube of sugar?”
The horse quickly ate the sugar cube from Sam’s hand. Then he dropped the armor at Sam’s feet and galloped away leaving the crops as they were. Sam hide the armor in the field and went to the home in the morning.
The next year, the horse came back again and in exchange for a cube of sugar he left a silver armor for Sam. And the year after that it left him a gold armor. One day, there was an announcement in the village. ‘The king announces that any man who can climb the glass hill at the far end of the kingdom will be allowed to marry the princess. The man must climb the mountain and rescue the princess, who is sitting on top of the glass hill.’
Jim- “I must do this I am better than other men of the village.” And so Jim started his climb up the glass mountain. But he hardly made some distance when he slipped and fell.
Ken- “Ha Ha! Watch me! I will do it and marry the princess.” Ken had hardly gone 15 feet high when he also slipped and fell. Sam- “Let me try brother. If I will succeed I will be lucky to marry the princess.” Jim replied, “Ken and I could not do it what makes you think that you can?” Ken- “Yes you will never make it.” Sam said, “Yes, maybe I won’t! But I will still try.”
Sam left his brothers and started walking to the glass hill. Ken – “He will never make it” Jim replied, “Yes, I also don’t think he will.” just then everybody saw a rider wearing a bronze armor riding a sparkling white horse climbing the mountain. The rider manage to reach one-third of the way and then fell down.
Sometime later, the rider came again back in silver armor with his horse and went up the hill again. He went up two-thirds the way and fell down. A while later, the rider came back wearing a gold armor and rode his horse up the hill again.
This time he made it! Princess asked, “Who are you, rider?” The rider took off his helmet and it was Sam! Sam said, “My name is Sam and I am here to rescue you, princess.”
Sam brought the princess down from the hill, where they were welcomed with loud cheer from all the villagers and the king’s men. They were married soon after.
Moral : “We should be thankful for the things that come our way. We never know how they may help us.”
Miser And His Gold
Once upon a time, there was a miser. He hated spending gold. So he never used any gold he had.
He had dug up a hole and used to bury the gold near the tree in is garden.
Every day he goes near the tree to dig it up and look at the gold happily. He always thought to himself, “I am so rich. I own this much gold.” This made him very happy.
One day, a passerby saw him digging up and happened to see the gold hidden by him. The passerby – “Gold under the tree! I should wait till it gets dark.” The robber waited till the night time to dig up the gold. He took all the gold buried under the tree.
The next day the miser came back to look at his gold. The miser- “Where is my gold? Where is my gold?” The miser digs a big hole where he used to hide his gold. But he couldn’t find any gold in the hole. The miser started crying, “Who stole my gold?” Listening to the miser crying, all his neighbors came running to his house.
The neighbor asked him, “What happened? Why are you upset?” The miser showed them the hole and told everything about the gold he used to hide under the tree. Then another neighbor asked him, “Did you ever spend any of your gold?” The miser replied to him, “No, I would only dig it up. Looking at it made me happy.”
Then neighbor- “You never used anything at all! The gold was of no use to you because you had it in the ground. Just look into the hole and think that the gold is still inside it. Then you will be as happy as you were before.”
Neighbors started to laugh and left him with the empty hole.
Moral : “You should utilize your money in something good. Because wealth unused might as well not exist.”
The Apple Tree and the Farmer
Once upon a time, there lived a farmer in a village, beside a forest. He had a big garden that had an old apple tree and other plants, trees and beautiful flowers. When the farmer was a little boy, he spent much of his time playing with the apple tree. Those days, the apple tree had given the choicest of apples to him. However, as time passed, the apple tree became old and stopped bearing fruits.
Now that the farmer was not getting any apples from the tree, he decided that the tree was useless. Therefore, he decided to cut the tree and use its wood to make some new furniture. He felt that since the tree was old and huge, he did not have to cure it, and it would make great furniture. He forgot that as a boy, he had spent his entire childhood climbing the tree and eating its apples.
Now the apple tree was home to several little animals in the neighborhood. This included squirrels, sparrows and a huge variety of birds and insects. When the farmer took his axe and began chopping the tree, all the little animals came rushing down.
They all began to plead with the farmer. They gathered round the farmer and said, “Please don’t cut the tree. We used to play with you when you were small, under this very tree. This is our home and we have no other place to go”.
The farmer was adamant. He raised his axe and the commotion grew.
“Please don’t chop and destroy my home and kids,” cried the squirrel.
“Please don’t chop and destroy my nest,” cried the little birds.
“Please don’t cut the apple tree,” cried the grasshopper.
The farmer, however, forgot his childhood and his animal friends. He began to chop the tree harder. All the little animals became desperate, and wanted to protect the apple tree at any cost.
The little animals said, “We will sing for you when you are toiling away in the fields. We will look after your little boy. He will not cry, but instead will be entertained and happy. You will like our songs and will not feel tired.”
However, their cries for help fell on deaf ears. Despite all their requests, the farmer continued to chop down the tree.
All of a sudden, he noticed something shiny. On inspecting it, he realized that it was a beehive, full of honey. He took a little and put it in his mouth. The taste of the honey woke up the little boy in him. Suddenly, the memories of his childhood came rushing back. The honey tasted so good that he wanted more. It brought a sense of happiness to him. He smiled and exclaimed, “This tastes amazing.”
Realizing the change in the farmer’s attitude, the little animals spoke in unison: The bee said, “I will always provide you with sweet honey.” The squirrel said, “I will share any amount of nuts that you want.” The birds cried, “We will sing as many songs as you want.”
Finally, the farmer realized his folly, and put down his axe. He understood that the tree was home to many lovely animals that provided him with so many things. He wanted his little boy to have the childhood that he had.
The farmer realized that the apple tree was not that fruitless. The little boy in him saved the apple tree.
He threw away the axe and said to the little creatures, “I promise that I would never cut this tree. I have realized my mistake and you all can now live in peace and harmony.”
The little creatures thanked the bee profusely. If the farmer had not found the beehive, they would have been homeless by now. They continued living happily in the old apple tree.
Moral : Each and every living thing in nature is of some use: we should not destroy any living thing.
Gold Coins and a Selfish Man
Sam was a greedy and selfish man. He always desired to have lots and lots of money and never hesitated to cheat others to make money. Also, he never wished to share anything with others. He paid very low wages to his servants.
However, one day, he learned a lesson that changed his life forever.
It so happened that one day, a small bag that belonged to Sam was missing. The bag had 50 gold coins in it. Sam searched high and low for the bag, but could not find it. Sam’s friends and neighbours also joined in the search, but all their efforts were in vain.
After a couple of days, the ten year old daughter of a man working for Sam found the bag. She told her father about it. Her father identified the bag as the one that was missing, and immediately decided to take it to his master.
He gave the bag back to his master Sam, and asked him to check whether the bag had 50 gold coins. Sam was exultant to get the coins back, but he decided to play a trick. He shouted at his worker, “there were 75 gold coins in this bag but you gave me only 50! Where are the other coins? You have stolen them!”
The worker was shocked to hear this and pleaded his innocence. Selfish and greedy, Sam did not accept the worker’s story, and decided to take the issue to court.
The judge heard both the sides. He questioned the daughter and the worker about the number of coins they had found in the bag, and they assured it was only 50.
He cross-examined Sam and Sam replied, “Yes my lord, I had 75 gold coins in my bag, and they gave me only 50. Hence, it is quite obvious that they have stolen 25 coins!”
The judge then asked, “Are you sure that your bag had 75 coins?”
Sam nodded vigorously.
The judge then made his judgment.
“Since Sam lost a bag of 75 gold coins and the bag found by the girl had only 50 coins, it is obvious that the bag that was found does not belong to Sam. It was lost by someone else. If anyone finds a bag of 75 gold coins, I will declare that it belongs to Sam. As there are no complaints about the loss of 50 coins, I order the girl and his father to take those 50 coins as a token of appreciation for their honesty!”
Moral : Honesty will always be rewarded and greed punished!
Think Before You Speak
It was a sunny day, but the climate was enjoyable. Everyone in the railway station was waiting for the train to arrive. Among the crowd, there was a group of friends, youngsters who were on board for vacation.
It was a busy station with juice shop, mobile restaurants, coffee and tea stalls, newspaper shop, restaurants, etc. The announcement regarding the arrival of the train was made and everyone prepared to get into the train to their appropriate places.
The group of friends made loud noise to welcome the train as it entered the station. They ran to get their reserved seats before anyone could get into the train.
The empty seats were filled and the train whistled to move. An old man with a young boy aged around 15 years came running to catch the train. They entered the train and the train started to move. They had their seats just adjacent to the friends’ group.
The young boy was so surprised to see everything.
He acclaimed at his father, ‘Dad, the train is moving and the things are moving backwards.’
His father smiled and nodded his head.
As the train started moving fast, the young boy again screamed, ‘Dad the trees are green in colour and run backward very fast.’ His father said, ‘Yes dear’ and smiled.
Just like a kid, he was watching everything with great enthusiasm and happiness loaded with tons of surprises.
A fruit seller passed selling apples and oranges. The young boy asked his dad, ‘I want to eat apples.’ His father bought him apples. He said, ‘Oh apple looks so sweet than it tastes’ I love this colour.
The group was watching all the activities of this boy and asked the boy’s father ‘Is your son having any problem? Why is he behaving very differently?
A friend from the group made fun of him and shouted, ‘His son is mad I think.
‘My son was born blind. Only a few days before he was operated and got the vision. He is seeing various things in his life for the first time.
The young friends became very quiet and apologized to his father and son.
Moral : Think Before You Speak
The Devoted Mother
A mother duck and her little ducklings were on their way to a lake one day. The ducklings were very happy following their mother and quack-quacking along the way.
All of a sudden, the mother duck saw a fox at a distance. She was frightened, and shouted, “Children, hurry to the lake. There’s a fox!”
The ducklings hurried towards the lake. The mother duck wondered what to do. Then she began to walk back and forth dragging one wing on the ground.
When the fox saw her, he became happy. He said to himself, “It seems she’s hurt and can’t fly! I can easily catch and eat her!” He ran towards her.
The mother duck ran, leading the fox away from the lake. The fox followed her. Now he wouldn’t be able to harm her ducklings. The mother duck looked towards her ducklings and saw that they had reached the lake. She was relieved, so she stopped and took a deep breath.
The fox thought that she was tired and he came closer, but the mother duck quickly spread her wings and rose up in the air. She landed in the middle of the lake and her ducklings swam to her.
The fox stared in disbelief at the mother duck and her ducklings. The mother duck had tricked him cleverly. Now he could not reach them because they were in the middle of the lake.
Midas and the Golden touch
King Midas as a greedy and discontented man, who loved gold more than anything else.
Once, he did a good deed for someone, and a Greek God appeared before him, saying that he will be granted his heart’s desire for doing the good deed.
Midas wished that everything he touched should turn into gold, instantly.
God granted his wish. Midas was very excited and went about touching random objects, turning everything he touched into gold.
After a while, he became hungry. However, when he touched his food, it turned to gold, and he could not eat it.He was starving and dismayed that he could not eat.
Seeing him troubled, his loving daughter threw her arms around him to comfort him, and she, too, turned to gold.
Midas was horrified that his daughter had become a statue of gold. He regretted asking for the Golden Touch and realised that he had been greedy and that gold was not the most precious thing in the world.
He cried and begged God to take back his wish. The God took pity on him and asked him to take a dip in the river by his palace, and then fill a pitcher of water from the river and sprinkle it on all the things he wanted to change back.
He followed the instructions and changed his daughter back to normal.
He was very happy to get his beloved daughter back and stopped being greedy from that moment.
For Readers
And just like that, our magical journey through the world of stories has come to an end. We’ve met brave knights, clever foxes, and even a grumpy troll. We’ve laughed, we’ve learned, and we’ve dreamed.
Now, it’s time to close our eyes and let our dreams take flight. Remember, every night is a new adventure, a new story waiting to unfold. Sweet dreams, little friends!