Mahosoth story

Narrative text -Mahosoth story
(Favourite story from Thailand)

In one of his lives the Buddha was born the son of a merchant. The merchant called the boy Mahosoth. Mahosoth was a very clever boy, and he grew up to be a very wise man. He was good at ending quarrels
, and solving other problems in his village.

Soon people beyond the village learned about this wise man, Mahosoth. Word came to the king himself that Mahosoth was the wisest man in the kingdom. The king could hardly believe the stories he heard. He did not believe that anyone could be so wise. Therefore, the king decided to test Mahosoth’s wisdom. He sent for the headman of the village where Mahosoth lived.

“The cattle in your village are not having enough calves,” said the king. “From now on, all your bulls must have calves.”

The headman returned to the village. He did not know what to do because he could not think of any way to carry out the king’s command. Finally he decided to ask Mahosoth for advice.

The next day Mahosoth sent a boy from the village to see the king. “Sire, you must help me: my father is going to have a baby.”

“You are a fool,” said the king. “Men can’t have babies.”

The village boy smiled. “That is true, sire. And bulls cannot have calves.”

Hearing this, the king knew that Mahosoth had sent the boy. He sent for Mahosoth and made him a counselor so his wisdom could help the whole kingdom.

Three Foolish Sons

Narrative text - Three Foolish Sons
(Favourite story from Taiwan)
 

Long, long ago there was a rich man who had three sons. They lived in a large house in the town of Keelung in northern Taiwan.

One day, he said to his sons, “You are no longer children. You must do something to earn your own living. When I die
, I am not going to leave you very much money. I started with nothing and made a fortune by working hard you must do the same. Now here is two hundred dollars for each of you. You can use it to start your own business.”

The three sons went off separately, the eldest son met a hunter. He thought that hunting would be fine so he bought a gun from him for two hundred dollars.

The second son met a basket-maker. He bought a set of tools from him so that he could make baskets.

The third son met a doctor who told him that he had a medicine which could cure all diseases. He bought it from him for two hundred dollars.

When the rich man heard what his sons had done with the money he had given them, he was very angry, “What stupid sons I have!” he said.

One day, the eldest son tried to shoot a fly on his father’s forehead. Instead he killed his father. The second son picked up his tools and tried to repair the damage to his father’s head. The third son tried to cure his father with medicine which he has bought.

Everyone said that the three sons were very foolish. They had spent all their money uselessly.  

The Brave Soldier

The brave soldier

Once upon a time, there was a young man named Hou Chin who lived in the small Taiwanese village of Shin Chuang. He was very kind. Whenever he saw

a big boy beating a smaller boy, he always stopped him and helped the smaller boy. Because of this, all the big boys hated him.

Soon, all the big boys collected together and chased Hou Chin out of village. He moved to another village and stayed with his aunt. His aunt liked him very much:

One day, he went to sleep on top of a pile of wood. A few minutes later, his aunt’s maid came along and saw a tiger sleeping on top of the pile of wood. She ran told Hou Chin’s aunt what she had seen.

“There are no tigers in Taiwan,” said Hou Chin’s aunt. “You must be dreaming.” They went together to the pile of wood and saw Hou Chin just waking up. His aunt thought Hou Chin must be a very unusual young man who perhaps one day would become a great man.

“I think you should join the army,” she said to him. Hou Chin agreed. Before he left to join the army, she made him a pair of large boots because his feet were very big. He put the boots in a bag which he carried on his back.

As he was big and strong, he has given the job of carrying the army’s flag into battle. One day, the army was defeated. All the soldiers ran away. After Hou Chin had run about half a mile, he remembered that he had left bag behind. He went back to look for it.

When the enemy soldiers saw him returning carrying his flag, they thought there must be a large army behind him. They all ran away. Hou Chin’s general congratulated him and promoted him to captain. Everyone thought he was a hero. He served in the army for many years and became a famous general.

The woodcutter and the king of the mice

The woodcutter and the king of the mice

(Favourite story from Cambodia)

The king of the mice lived inside a banyan tree in a forest. One day, a poor man was cutting down some trees. As he started to cut down the banyan tree, the king of the mice grew frightened “Please, leave the tree standing” he said to the woodcutter, “and I’ll give you a piece

of gold every day.”

The woodcutter agreed. So, every evening the king of the mice took out a piece of gold from under the roots of the tree and gave it to the woodcutter. The woodcutter took the pieces of gold home and showed them to his wife.

After a few days, his wife asked him, “Where does the gold come from?”

“Don’t worry about that,” he said, “just keep it,”

A few days later she asked him again, but he did not tell her. “if you don’t tell me,” she said, “I’ll go and tell the government or even the king that you’re a robber.”

The woodcutter was frightened of his wife when she was angry. So he said, “Every evening the king of the mice gives me a piece of gold from under the roots of the tree.”

“Oh, you are stupid!” his wife said. “You’ve been tricked by a mouse. He gives you one piece of gold every evening but the rest of the gold is under the tree all the time! Why don’t you cut down the tree and take it all away?”

The woodcutter did as he was told. He cut down the tree. But when he looked under the roots, the gold was not there. The king of the mice had run away too.

That night, the king of the mice crept up to the woodcutter’s house and took back all the gold. So the woodcutter was as poor as ever.

Terjemahan....

One thing leads to another

Long ago, a man climbed up a palm to pick the leaves. He wanted to make them into baskets and toys. While he was working, he said proudly, “First, I’ll sell my baskets. Then I’ll buy some clothes. Then I’ll buy a buffalo to plough my rice-field. I’ll tell him what to do. If he disobeys. I’ll kick him.”

As he said this, he kicked his

foot in the air and slipped, he almost fell out of the tree. But he caught hold of a branch just in time. He hung there, very frightened.

Just then, a man riding an elephant came along. The man in the tree cried out, “Elephant-rider! Elephant-rider! Help, help!”.

The elephant-rider looked at the man in the tree and said, “I don’t know what I can do.”

“Bring your elephant under the tree,” the man said. “Then stand up and catch hold of my feet.”

The elephant-rider did as he was told. He stood on his toes to catch hold of the man’s feet. But the elephant thought the rider was kicking him. So he walk away, leaving the rider behind. Now two men hung from the tree.

At that moment, four bald men walked past. They were looking for something to eat. When they came near, the man in the tree cried out. “Help, help. Please help us to get down. If you help us. We’ll be your servants forever.”

The four men looked up and thought. “we’ve worked hard for all these years and we’ve never had a servant. Now these two can work for us.” So they said, “What shall we do?.

“Friends,” said the man in the tree, “take a sarong. Then the four corners to your necks. Then come and stand below us. We’ll jump down into the sarong.”

The four men did as they were told. The two men in the tree jumped into the sarong. The four bald heads crashed together so hard that the four men died. The two men were very frightened.

A woman lived in a house quite near. Her husband was away. That night, the man took the four bodies secretly to her house. They hid the bodies under the house.

Next morning, the old woman came down from her house, as usual, to wash. When she saw the four dead bodies. She cried out, “Who has come here to die?” she took the bodies one by one  into the house. She wrapped each one in a white cloth. Then she took the first body outside. She cried out to her neighbours, “my dear husband is dead! Please take away his body and bury it.” The neighbours agreed. They buried the body and then went home.

The next morning the woman did the same thing. She took out the second body, and said to her neighbours. “My husband has come back from the land of the dead. Please bury him again.” So her neighbours helped her again. The same thing happened the next day, and the next. Now all four bodies were buried.

On the fourth day, the neighbours said to each other, “If the dead body comes back again. We’ll beat him.” And they waited for him on the road.

That night, the woman’s real husband came from the rice-field. The neghbour thought he was the dead body. They jumped on him and knocked him down. They shouted, “You’re dead. You’re dead. You’ve back three times already. You can’t come back again.”

They beat the old man so hard that he died.

Retyped by www.englishstory12.blogspot.com

Source: Favourite stories from Cambodia  by David Chandler

English story for kids

 The kind man and the tiger story
(Favourite story from Cambodia)
 

One day, a man called Sok went into the forest to cut  wood. Before long, he found a tiger lying on the path. He looked more closely at the tiger. He saw that it had fallen asleep on top of a snake’s hole. “A snake has bitten it,” thought Sok.

He was a kind man and he felt sorry for the tiger. He took some medicine from his bag and rubbed it on the tiger’s coat. Straight away, the tiger opened his eyes. He saw
that his beautiful coat was covered with medicine. He was very angry.

“Look what you have done to my coat!” he roared.

“I thought a snake had bitten you,” said Sok. “I didn’t want you to die,”

“Me? Die?” said the tiger. “Look, nothing bit me. I was fast asleep, that’s all. But you’re going to die very soon. I shall eat you for my supper.”

Sok was very frightened. He knelt down on the ground and said, “Please don’t kill me. Please wait until I can find someone in this forest. Then I’ll ask him who is right, if you’re rigt you can killme. If you’re wrong, then let me go.”

The tiger agreed and Sok ran off.

At the end of the path, he met a horse and a cow. He told them the whole story, then he asked, “Can you please help me. Who is right-the tiger or me?

The horse and the cow knew that Sok was right. But they did not say so. “If we say Sok is right,” they said to each other, “the tiger will be very angry. He’ll eat us instead of Sok.”

Now Sok was even faster. Soon he met a hare. He told the hare his story. “Please help me,” he asked.

“Yes. I’ll help you,” the hare replied. “Go back and start talking to the tiger.” The hare then ran back into the forest.

Sok went back to the tiger. Soon the hare come along. “What are you two talking about?” he asked.

The tiger said, “I was asleep. This man covered my beautiful coat with medicine!”

Then Sok said, “I thought a snake had bitten him. I didn’t want him to die.”

“Hmmmmmm,” said the hare. “I want to find out what really happened. Go back to the place where you were sleeping, tiger. If you wake up alive, you can eat Sok for supper.”

The tiger went back to the snake’s hole. He fell asleep on top of it. The snake came out of its hole and bit him.

“this time, don’t rub any medicine on his coat,” said the hare. So the tiger died and Sok was safe

Bathala and the Rainbow

Bathala and the rainbow story

In the beginning, there were no rainbows. The first rainbow was used by Bathala, who was king of the Gods and goddesses. He used the rainbow as abridge to join earth and sky.

In those days, Bathala and the Gods and goddesses
use to live on earth. They taught people how to hunt animals in the forest, how to grow vegetables and fruit, how to make war, and how to cure illnesses.

One day, Bathala decided to visit his kingdom in the sky. He got ready his strong fine horse which could jump over mountains and run as fast as the wind. He sat on a saddle made of soft leather with gold and silver decorations.

He rode on his horse to the end of the earth where there was a great ocean. Everyone had to cross this ocean to reach the sky. Yet it was very close to the sky and on a clear day you could hear the voice of the people living in the sky.

Bathala stopped his horse. He immediately called out to his servants in the sky and told them to build a bridge so that he could pass over it. Suddenly, a beautiful, many-coloured ribbon appeared joining the earth to the sky. Bathala rode over this bridge to reach heaven.

Since then, a rainbow has been called bahaghari in the Filipino language. It means “bridge of the king.”

Today, when people see a rainbow in the sky, they know that Bathala is once again riding on his horse crossing the bridge joining the earth to the sky