The man with two pairs of arms and legs

The man with two pairs of arms and legs story

A farmer and his young son were returning to their village from Bandar Seri Begawan. It was dark and they had nowhere to pass the night. “I feel very tired, father,” said the boy. “Let’s stay here for the night.”

So they settled down to sleep under a large tree. They lit a small fire with some sticks to keep away the mosquitoes. They laid down side by side. The farmer covered his son and himself with a blanket.

“I’m not very comfortable,” said his son. “the ground is too hard.”

“Never mind, you’ll soon be asleep.”

Not long after, the boy rested his head on his father’s chest, as if it were a pillow. He soon fell asleep.

In the middle of the night, after the fire had gone out, a tiger passed by. He was looking for a good dinner. He could smell the scent of the man and his son. When he came closer, he was surprised to see that although there was only one head sticking out from the top of the blanket, there were two pairs of arms and legs protruding from the sides. He ran away as fast as he could.

Soon he met his friend Buaya (Mr. Crocodile), and told him what had happened. “You’re silly,” said Buaya. “There are two persons sleeping there. One of them must have covered his head with a blanket. Now please run back and take one for yourself and give the other to me.”

The tiger could not help laughing when he heard what Buaya said.

He ran back to where the farmer and his son were sleeping, he went closer this time to have a good look. His whiskers brushed the nose of the sleeping man. Suddenly, the man gave a loud sneeze  -  “Ah-choou!”

The tiger was startled that he turned around and fled. He ran straight back to Buaya shouting, “Here I come!”

Buaya thought it must be the present that Mr. Tiger had promised him. He opened his mouth wide, and the tiger ran straight inside. In a flash, Buaya swallowed him.

Even to this day, he has never realized that he had swallowed his friend. However, he has often been seen to shake his head and say that some men are very hairy and tough.

Apai Sali and his wife

Apai Sali and his wife story

Apai Sali was ugly and not very clever. One day he caught a wild pig. He was delighted but he did not want to let his wife know. He was greedy and wanted to eat it himself. So he did it in some bushes behind his house.

He returned home holding his stomach.

“What’s wrong?” his wife asked.

“I have a terrible stomach-ache,” he said. He went into the kitchen to warm himself in front of the fire. However, he sat so close to the fire that his loin-cloth caught alight.

“You stupid fellow!” his wife cried. “Why aren’t you more careful?”

“Don’t worry,” Apai Sali replied. “the smoke will help to drive away the mosquitoes.” He left the kitchen by the back door.

“Where are you going?” his wife asked.

“I am only going to the toilet,” he said.

He went straight to the bushes behind which he had hidden the wild pig. He quickly made a fire with the lighted end of his loin-cloth and started to roast the pig.

As he was away for so long, his wife wondered what had happened. She could smell a pig being roasted. It was such a delicious smell it made her mouth water. She went to see where the smell was coming from. She saw her husband roasting a pig however, her husband did not notice her. She hid behind a big tree.

Suddenly, Apai Sali heard a noise. “Zzh! Zzh! Zzh!” it sounded like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes. Then he heard a voice. “Apai Sali, give me some of your roast pig.”

Apai Sali was not only stupid but timid. He quickly threw a leg of the pig in the direction of the voice.

The voice kept on asking for more and more. Soon there was nothing left of the pig for Apai Sali to eat.

He returned home and went to bed.

The next morning. His wife gave him some cold rice and vegetables for breakfast. “Don’t you have anything better than this?” he asked.

“You greedy man!” she said. “You wanted to eat all the pig by yourself yesterday. Do you think I didn’t know? It was I who spoke to you!”

“Chech!” exclaimed Apai Sali. “If I had only known, I wouldn’t have given you any of the pig.”

He got up and went out, leaving the cold rice and vegetables uneaten. But he never tried to cheat his wife again.

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Reward for a greedy wife

The Sparrow with no tongue story

Once upon a time, there lived an old man and his wife. The old man was very kind but his wife was very fierce. The old man kept sparrow in a cage in the kitchen. One day the sparrow ate some rice which had been left in the kitchen. The old man’s wife was very angry. She immediately cut out the sparrow’s tongue. The sparrow flew away through an open window.

the sparrow with no tongue story

When her husband returned home, he found that the sparrow had gone. He asked his wife what had happened.

“Your sparrow stole some food. So I cut out its tongue to teach it a good lesson.”

The old man was very sad. He decided to try to find out where the sparrow had gone.

He travelled all over the country, calling out in a loud voice, “Mr. Sparrow! Mr. Sparrow! Where are you?”

Finally, he found out where the sparrow was living, and he went to see him. The sparrow asked him to come in to meet his wife and children.

“Please sit down and make yourself comfortable,” the sparrow said. “I hope you can stay to dinner.”

“What a polite sparrow!” the old man thought.

After dinner, the old man asked to be excused as he was living a long distance away.

Before he left, the sparrow brought out two boxes. He told him to choose one of them as a present. The old man chose the smaller of the two. When he arrived home, his wife scolded him. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

“Oh!” replied her husband. “I discovered where the sparrow is living. He gave me this present.”

His wife opened the box. It was full of gold and silver.

She smiled and said to her husband. “I think I’ll also go to see the sparrow.”

When she arrived at the sparrow’s house, she called out, “Mr. Sparrow! How are you! I’ve been worrying about you for a long time. I’m so pleased to see you again.”

The sparrow invited her inside for dinner. Mrs. Sparrow was very kind to the old lady. She cooked an excellent meal.

When the old woman was ready to leave, she said, “Mr. sparrow, perhaps you would like to give me a present to take away? I can then always remember you.”

The sparrow brought out two boxes. The greedy old woman chose the larger one.

When she reached home, she called out to her husband, “Come out! Hurry up! See what the sparrow has given me!

When she opened the box, she found that it only contained stones.

The country of the mice

 The country of the mice story

There was once a king who ruled a large country in which there lived a great number of mice. One year there was not enough rice. The mice were very hungry. The king of the mice put on his best clothes and went to see the king of the country.

“Good morning, Mr. Mouse.” Said the king. “What can I do for you?”

“O king, we do not have enough rice. We would like to borrow some from you. If you can lend us what we need, we shall repay you next year.”

“How much do you want?”

“About one hundred bags,” answered the mouse.

“How can you carrying it away?”

“Your majesty, we shall find a way.”

The king ordered one hundred bags of rice to be given to the mice. The mice bit through the bags. They carried away the rice in their mouths. When the king looked the next morning. He was surprised to find the rice had disappeared.

The next year. The king of the mice repaid the king. The king was very pleased that he had kept his promise.

Not long afterwards, the king went to war with a neighbouring country. His army was not very strong. It lost every battle. The army of the other country reached the opposite side of the river. They were ready to attack the capital.

“Who can help me?” asked the king. He sent for the king of the mice.

The mouse asked the king to place thousands of stick. Each one foot long, by the side of the river.

The next night, all the mice used these sticks as boats to carry them across the river. The soldiers of other country were fast asleep when the mice quietly entered their camp. Some of them threw the soldier’s swords and guns into the river. Other ate their food. Yet others bit their toes. The soldier woke up. They did not know what had happened. They could not find their swords and guns and they thought they had been attacked by the king’s soldier. They ran away as fast as they could.

The king quickly asked the king of the mice to come to see him.

“Mr. mouse, you have saved my country,” he said. “Please tell me what you would like in return.”

The mouse replied. “O King, we only want to live in peace. Please send away all the cats from your country.”

The king did as he was asked. He gave orders for all the cats to leave immediately.

The king of the mice thanked the king. “cats are our worst enemy,” he said. “We can now live very happily for the rest of our lives.”

The monkeys and the men

 The monkeys and the men story

Long, long ago. There were many monkeys living in the forest around Chiengmai. Hunters used to go there from Bangkok to catch them. Some were sold to zoos, some to people who wanted them as pets, and others to people who liked monkey soup.

One day, a hunter caught many monkeys in his traps. They were all screaming and making a loud noise except one who sat very quite. “He must be a very unusual monkey.” The hunter said to himself, “I’ll keep him for myself.”

He sold all the other monkeys and kept this one in a big wooden cage in his house. He was very proud of him. When his friends came to visit him, he showed them the monkey. The monkey always sat very quietly in a corner of the cage.

“He’s very polite and well-behaved,” said his friends. “He’s like a human being. Why don’t you let him out of the cage? We’re sure he won’t run away.”

The hunter did this. As soon as he opened the door of the cage. The monkey ran away to the jungle at the back of the hunter’s house. He soon met some other monkeys. They were interested in him, as a monkey who had been caught by hunter seldom returned.

“What happened?” they asked him. “What was it like living in the monkey hunter’s house?”

The monkey scratched his head and ate a banana before replying to them. “I lived in a cage,” he said. “I had a good chance to watch the hunter and his friends very closely. First of all, they talk a lot. They all talked at the same time. Some of them played silly games. They threw away food they didn’t eat and left it lying around.”

The monkey’s new friends did not want to hear any more. They expected the monkey would tell them something more interesting. They started chatting among themselves and eating bananas and throwing away the skin. Some chased their own tails and scratched their heads.

“Wait,” the monkey called to them. “I haven’t finished yet.”

“we don’t want to hear any more,” the other monkeys said.

“The hunter and his friends don’t seem to be any different from us.”

The greedy monkeys

The greedy monkeys story

A family of monkeys lived in a forest in south China. They often came out to play. They liked to drink wine and wear red shoes. A hunter knew they lived in the forest and wanted to catch them. The monkeys were very clever, they always ran away when they saw him coming.

One day, the monkeys were all playing together. Suddenly one of them thought he could smell some wine.

“Ai-yaah! What a lovely smell! Where is it coming from?” he cried.

The monkeys soon found that it was coming from a large jar at the side of the path. There were several pairs of red shoes also next to the jar. The leader of the monkeys said, “We must be careful. I’m sure the hunter is playing a trick on us.”

Another monkey asked, “Why should he place such beautiful shoes by the side of the jar?”

As he spoke, he scratched his foot which began to itch. Yet a third monkey advised them, “We have not so far been caught by the hunter because we have been careful.” The old monkey who was their leader said “You’re right.”

We must be very careful. We don’t want the hunter to catch us.

“stupid old hunter” he cried out loudly. “Do you really think you can catch us?”

All the other monkeys started to shout, “Silly old hunter! Stupid old hunter!” until their throats were quite dry. They all stood in a circle around the wine jar and red shoes. They did not know what to do. No one wanted to leave. Some of them licked their lips. Others scratched their feet.

“Can we taste just a little of the wine?” one of the monkeys asked.

Without saying any more, all the monkeys rushed towards the wine jar and opened it.

“Ai-yaah! What a marvelous smell! We’re really very lucky! What wonderful wine!”

At first the monkeys tasted the wine with their tongues only. Soon they started to swallow large quantities of it.

Some of them put on the red shoes and jumped and danced in them. Others who had drunk too much wine fell to the ground.

Suddenly there was a loud noise from the forest. It was the hunter.

Some of the monkeys tried to run away. But they could not do so because the shoes were tied together.

It was very easy for the hunter to catch them. He tied all of them up.

“we’re  really very unlucky.” One of the monkeys said.

Another monkey answered, “We can only blame ourselves. We were too greedy.”

The tortoise who liked to boast

There were three good friends, a tortoise and two birds, who lived by a lake in Tibet. One year, there was no rain. Day by day, the water in the lake became less and less. The three friends did not know what to do.

The two  birds told to tortoise. “Everyone is moving to the Lake in the Sky. I think we had better move too, other wise we shall die of hunger and thirst. What do you think?”

“How can I travel so far?” replied the tortoise. “You can easily fly there but I have no wings.”

The tortoise cried so hard that the birds felt sorry for him.

“All right,” they said. “We can take you with us.”

“How can you do that?” asked the tortoise.

“we can hold two end of a stick in our mouths. You can hold on to the middle. We can then all fly together to the lake in the sky.”

“Yes, yes.” The tortoise cried. “What a good idea!”

“But you must be careful not to open your mouth while we are flying.”

“Of course not.” Replied the tortoise. “If anyone speaks to me. I shall not answer to them.”

So they started on their journey the next morning. The birds held the two ends of the stick. The tortoise held the middle of the stick with his mouth.

Soon they were on their way, flying over high mountains covered with snow, over dark forests, and farms.

On the earth, some farmers planting rice pointed up at them. “What a clever tortoise! He lets the birds carry him.”

Neither the birds nor the tortoise  said anything. The tortoise felt very happy to hear the farmers praise him.

They flew on and on towards the Lake in the Sky.

Some children looking after some cattle, on a hill shouted at them.

“What clever birds! They are carrying the tortoise to the Lake in the Sky.”

The birds did not say anything but the tortoise felt angry.

He wanted answer the children, “Stupid fools! Don’t you know that it was I who thought of the idea? I’m much more clever than the birds,” so he opened his mouth to shout back at them, “Hi….

As soon as he did so, he felt straight to the ground.