O Stories

A young girl and her father were walking  along a forest path.   At some point, they came  across a large tree branch on the ground in  front of them.  The girl asked her father,  “If I try, do you think I could move that branch?” Her father replied, “I am sure you can, if you  use all your strength.” The girl tried her best to  lift or push the branch, but she was not strong  enough and she couldn't move it. She said, with  disappointment, “You were wrong, dad. I can't move it.” “Try again with all your strength,” replied her father. Again, the girl tried hard to push the branch. She struggled but it did not move. “Dad, I cannot do it,”  said the girl. Finally her father said,  “Young lady, I advised you to use 'all your strength'.  You didn’t ask for my help. Our real strength lies not in independence, but in  interdependence. No individual person has all the  strengths, all the r...

A jobless man applied for the job of "sweeper"  at Microsoft.  The HR interviewed him.. Then watched him cleaning the floor as a test. "You are Appointed" he said. "Give me your e-mail address and I'll send you  the forms to fill in".  The man replied "But I don't  have a computer, neither an email." "I'm sorry", said the HR manager... "If you don't have an email, that means u do not exist.  And who doesn't exist, cannot have the job." The man left with no hope at all. He didn't know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket & buy a  10Kg tomato crate. He then sold the tomatoes in a Door to Door round.  In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital. He repeated the operation three times,  and returned home with $60. The man realised that he can survive this way,  and started to go everyday earlier and re...

A man had one very beautiful daughter. When the daughter was ready for marriage,  the father sent news around town that all the  eligible young men should come to compete in a test which would determine who was fit to marry his daughter. On that day, all was set, all the able-bodied young  men came out. Some came with paper and biro and  others with cutlasses and swords. The rich man took them to his swimming pool and addressed the men:  “Any of you who can swim from one end  of this swimming pool to the other would marry my daughter. In addition, I‘ll give him 15million dollars, a car and a house  so they can start life well. I shall be waiting to meet my  son-in-law at the other end. Good luck!” As the young men, all very excited at the prospect  of winning, started taking off their shirts, a helicopter  came over the pool and dropped alligators and  crocodiles into the pool. Immediately, all the me...

In 1892 at Stanford University, an 18-year-old student  was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan,  and not knowing where to turn for money,  he came up with a bright idea. He and a friend decided  to host a musical concert on campus to raise money  for their education.  They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski.  His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2000  for the piano recital. A deal was struck and the boys  began to work to make the concert a success.  The big day arrived. But unfortunately, they had not  managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was  only $1600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and  explained their plight.  They gave him the entire $1600, plus a cheque for the  balance $400. They promised to honour the cheque at  the soonest possible. “No,” said Paderewski.  “This is not acceptable.” He tore up the cheque, return...

A man who found a magic cup and learned  that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls.  But even though he had always been poor,  he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear.  So he found ways to make himself sad so  that his tears could make him rich. As the  pearls piled up, so did his greed grow.  The  story ended with the man sitting on a mountain  of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into  the cup with his beloved wife's slain body in his arms. "Well," he said, "if I may ask, why did the  man kill his wife? In fact, why did he ever have  to feel sad to shed tears?  Couldn't he have just smelled an onion?" There could be other solutions to our problems than just sorrow.

Many years ago in a small town, a farmer had the misfortune  of owing a large amount of money to the moneylender.  The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's  beautiful daughter so he proposed a bargain. He said he would  forgot the farmer's debt if he could marry her daughter.  Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. The moneylender told them that he would put a black pebble and  a white pebble into an empty bag. The girl would then have to  pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble,  she would become the moneylender's wife and her father's  debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she  need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven.  But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail. They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's garden.  As they talked, the moneylender be...

In a forest, a pregnant deer is about to give birth. She finds a remote grass field near a strong- flowing river.  This seems a safe place. Suddenly labour pains begin. At the same moment, dark clouds gather  around above  & lightning starts a forest fire. She looks to her left & sees a hunter with his  bow extended pointing at her. To her right, she spots a hungry lion approaching her. What can the pregnant deer do? She is in labour! What will happen? Will the deer survive? Will she give birth to a fawn? Will the fawn survive? Or will everything be burnt by the forest fire? Will she perish to the hunters’ arrow? Will she die a horrible death at the hands  of the hungry lion approaching her? She is constrained by the fire on the one side  & the flowing river on the other & boxed in by  her natural predators. What does she do? She focuses on giving birth to a new life. The sequ...

I read this story somewhere, which portrays  an excellent example for presence of mind. There was a barber shop in a locality.  The barber’s neighbor had a son who was  8 years old. He would frequently enter the barber  shop for no reason. The barber would take two one rupee coins in  left hand and one five rupee coin in the right hand,  and ask the child, which one you want.  The boy would choose the hand with two one rupee  coins, and move away happily with those two coins. The customers in the shop would laugh at the foolishness  of the child. The barber would laugh sadistically  with a satisfaction on fooling the kid. The barber did this daily. Every time the child  chose the smaller value and got laughed at. The kid's mother got the news from neighbors  about how her son was fooled everyday.  Mother felt bad that her son was made fun of everyday. She called her son and asked, ‘Do...

A mature person  One day, a wealthy father traveled  with his son to the countryside for he was keen  to show his son how the poor people live.  They spent a couple of days on the farm of what  would be considered a very poor family.  When the duo returned from their trip, the father  asked his son, ‘How was the trip?’ ‘It was great, Dad,’ the son replied. ‘Did you see how the poor people live?’  the father asked.  ‘Oh yeah,’ said the son. ‘So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?’  asked the father. The son answered, ‘I saw that we have  one dog, and they had four.  We have a pool that reaches to the middle  of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end.  We have imported lanterns in our garden,  and they have the stars at night.  Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they  have the whole horizon.  We have a small  piece of land to liv...

One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia, USA. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night. Could you possibly give us a room here?” the husband asked. The hotel clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple with compassion and explained that there were three conventions going on in town. “All of our rooms are taken,” the clerk said. Seeing their predicament, the courteous clerk made a gracious offer to couple. “But I can’t send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o’clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It’s not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night.” The couple declined saying it would cause inconvenience to him, but the young man pressed on. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll make out just fine,” the clerk told them. So the couple agree...

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to  examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound  named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his  wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane,  were all very attached to Belker and they  were hoping for a miracle.  I examined Belker and found he was dying.  I told the family we couldn’t do anything for  Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia  procedure for the old dog in their home.  As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told  me they thought it would be good for six-year- old Shane to observe the procedure.  They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience. The next day, I felt the  familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family  surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm,  petting the old dog for the last time, that  I wondered if he understood what was going on.  Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully  away. The li...

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire.  He told his employer-contractor of his  plans to leave the house-building business  to live a more leisurely life with his wife  and enjoy his extended family. He would  miss the paycheck each week, but he  wanted to retire. They could get by.  The contractor was sorry to see his good  worker go & asked if he could build just  one more house as a personal favor.  The carpenter said yes, but over time it was  easy to see that his heart was not in his work.  He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used  inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to  end a dedicated career. When the carpenter  finished his work, his employer came to  inspect the house. Then he handed the front- door key to the carpenter and said,  "This is your house... my gift to you." The carpenter  was shocked! What a shame! If he had only  known he ...