Inspirational Stories #109 - I Smiled at them!

The Sultan of Arabia had grown very fond of Mulla Nasruddin and often took him along on his travels. Once, while on a journey, the royal caravan approached a small non-descriptive town in the desert.

On a whim the Sultan said to the Mulla, "I wonder if people would know  me in this small place. Let us stop my entourage here and enter the town on foot, and then we will know if they can recognize  me".

They dismounted and walked down the main road of the town. The Sultan was surprised to see that many people smiled at Nasruddin but ignored him completely.

Irritated and a trifle angry, he said, "The people seem to know you here pretty well, but they don't know me!".

"They don't know me either, your excellency", replied the Mulla.

"Then, why did they smile at you only", questioned the Sultan.

"Because I smiled at them", said Nasruddin, smiling.

MORAL: Courtesy and respect are mutually reinforcing. Even if someone does not greet you, be sure to greet them. You have nothing to lose anyway.

Inspirational Stories #108 - Learning from Mistakes

Thomas Edison tried two thousand different materials in search of a filament for the light bulb. When none worked satisfactorily, his assistant complained, “All our work is in vain. We have learned nothing.”

Edison replied very confidently, “Oh, we have come a long way and we have learned a lot. We know that there are two thousand elements which we cannot use to make a good light bulb.”

Moral: We can also learn from our mistakes.

Inspirational Stories #107 - What's for Dinner

A man feared his wife wasn’t hearing as well as she used to and he thought she might need a hearing aid. Not quite sure how to approach her, he called the family doctor to discuss the problem. The doctor told him there is a simple test the husband could perform to give the doctor a better idea about her hearing loss.

Here’s what you should do,” said the doctor, “stand about 40 feet away from her, and  speak in a normal   tone see if she hears you. If not, go to 30 feet, then 20 feet, and so on until you get a response.”

That evening, the wife was in the kitchen cooking dinner, and he was in the  basement. He said to himself, “I’m about 40 feet away, let’s see what happens.” Then in a normal tone he asks, ‘Honey, what’s for dinner?” No response.

So the husband moved closer to the kitchen, about 30 feet from his wife and repeatse ,“Honey, what’s for dinner tonight?” Still no response.

Next he moved into the dining room where he is about 20 feet from his wife and asked, Honey, what’s for dinner?”

Again he gets no response so, He walks up to the kitchen door, about 10 feet away. “Honey, what’s for dinner?” Again there is no response.

So he walks right up behind her. “Honey, what’s for dinner?”

“Peter, for the FIFTH time I’ve said, CHICKEN!”

Moral: The problem may not be with the other person as we would always think, could be very much within us..!

Inspirational Stories #106 - Two frogs

One day, some tiny frogs arranged a running competition between them. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer the contestants. The race began. No one in the crowd truly believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. Some said, "They will never make it to the top. They will never succeed. The tower is too high!"

The tiny frogs began collapsing, one by one, except for a few who kept climbing higher and higher. The crowd continued to scream, "It's very difficult! No one will  make it to the top!".

More tiny frogs got tired, and gave up, but one continued higher and higher. This one would simple not give up! At the end, everyone else had given up climbing the tower, except one tiny frog. After a big effort, he was the only one who reached the top! All the other frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he found the strength to succeed and reach the goal.

It turned out that the winner was deaf !! He had thought that the crowd was encouraging him the entire time!

Moral: An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day. So be careful of what you say to those who cross your path. The power of words… it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way.

Inspirational Stories #105 - Having a Best Friend

Two friends were walking through a forest. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand “Today my best friend slapped me in the face”. 

They kept on walking until they found a small  river, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped suddenly started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered  he wrote on a stone “Today my best friend saved my life”.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.”

Moral: Do not value the material things you have in your life. But value the people you have in your life.