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In times past, a poor Indian was living with his wife and children in a beautiful part of the country. He was not only poor, but inexpert in procuring food for his family, and his children were all...
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There was once an Indian who had a taboo against eating porcupine. He himself had originally been an animal but was transformed into a human being and therefore does not eat the flesh of the porcupine lest he be transformed again. He chose to live among the...
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Once there were three brothers who loved adventure. One day they decided to go on a journey, each one to a different country, and to meet again on a certain day ten years later. Each brother was to bring back with him an unusual gift.
...
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Once there lived an old couple who did not have any children. The woman was thin and wrinkled, yet this couple still hoped to have a child somehow. One day, after he had...
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Once there was a shoemaker—a poor man with his wife and children, just like the son of Yusif il-Xatib (a shoemaker in the storyteller’s village), who is new to the craft. All day he mended shoes—save the listeners!—so he could make two or three piasters and buy bread...
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Once upon a time, a king and queen lived happily together. One day, the King felt restless, and decided to wage war on a heathen lord, infamous for his cruelty and evil. The King gathered a great army, took leave from his wife, and set sail. When the King landed in...
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Once upon a time there lived a husband and wife who were very poor and had nothing at all in their house. The wife, who was pregnant, gave birth to a son at ten o'clock at night, but she had nothing with which to wrap the tender babe. The poor father...
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Lo-Sun was a blind boy and, like many others thus afflicted in China, he had no home, for his hard-hearted parents had driven him forth to beg his living. From morning till night he wandered along the city streets and country lanes, always carrying with him a blind...
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There are places in China where the mountains reach all the way up to the clouds. High up on one of these mountains lived a wise old man. His name was Tian, which means “heaven.” There among the clouds lived Tian’s friends, the cranes. Tian fed them and...
A Jewish Tale: A pair of rabbis set out to raise some funds for a worthy cause. They approach a wealthy man whose generosity has become blocked, and one of the rabbis knew how to help him unstop it. How is receiving just as important as giving, in cultivating generosity in others and ourselves?