Short stories for children are adventurous and interesting ways to teach your children about good morals and right conduct. As children, they are at their formative years, that is why they need to be educated with good values to make them good fit for society and family.
Instead of purchasing at bookstores, you do not have to spend another dime with these freemoral short stories specially prepared for children. Our online short stories are brimming with lessons that your kid can use in life. These small English stories are not only entertaining, they teach children about several things in life. By reading a short story from this page every day, you can help your kid build values, as well as improve his reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to stories for children with moral lessons, you need not look any further. Here at Children World Fun, you can groom your child into a better, responsible adult with the help of our children’s short stories with moral lessons.
1. A HOLE IN THE FENCE
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence....
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The day passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence.”
The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Moral Value:
Friends and loved ones are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Water your relationships with kindness… and they will grow. So be careful little lips what you say…! And you won't chase friendships away.
2. BUTERLFY AND COCOON
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.
Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What this man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Moral Value:
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly...
3. DON’T CHANGE THE WORD
Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather.
Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost ahuge amount of money.
Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, “Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?”
The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a “shoe” for himself.
Moral Value:
There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself - your heart; and not the world.
4. THE FOX WHO GOT COUGHT IN THE TREE TRUNK
Once upon a time, there was a hungry fox that was looking for something to eat. He was very hungry. No matter how hard he tried, the fox could not find food. Finally he went to the edge of the forest and searched there for food. Suddenly he caught sight of a big tree with a hole in it.
Inside the hole was a package. The hungry fox immediately thought that there might be food in it, and he became very happy. He jumped into the hole and when he opened the package, he saw there were a lot of food, bread, meat and fruit in it!
An old woodcutter had placed the food in the tree trunk while he cut down trees in the forest. He was going to eat it for his lunch.
The fox happily began to eat. After the fox had finished eating, he felt thirsty and decided to leave the trunk and drink some water from a nearby spring. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could not get out of the hole. Do you know why? Yes, the fox had eaten so much food that he became too big to fit through the hole.
The fox was very sad and upset. He told himself, “I wish that I had thought a little before jumping into the hole.”
Moral Value:
Yes children, this is the result of doing something without thinking about it first.
5. GENEROSITY
Mahatma Gandhi went from city to city, village to village collecting funds for the Charkha Sangh. During one of his tours he addressed a meeting in Orissa.
After his speech a poor old woman got up. She was bent with age, her hair was grey and her clothes were in tatters. The volunteers tried to stop her, but she fought her way to the place where Gandhi Ji was sitting. “I must see him,” she insisted and going up to Gandhi Ji touched his feet.
Then from the folds of her sari she brought out a copper coin and placed it at his feet. Gandhi Ji picked up the copper coin and put it away carefully. The Charkha Sangh funds were under the charge of Jamnalal Bajaj. He asked Gandhi Ji for the coin but Gandhi Ji refused.
“I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees for the Charkha Sangh,” Jamnalal Bajaj said laughingly “yet you won’t trust me with a copper coin.” “This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands” Gandhi Ji said. “If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn’t mean much.”
But this coin was perhaps all that the poor woman possessed. She gave me all she had. That was very generous of her. What a great sacrifice she made. That is why I value this copper coin more than a crore of rupees.
Moral Value:
"Overlook and forgive the weakness of generous people, because if they fall down, God gives his hand in their hands and helps them…."
6. LOVE AND TIME
Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.
Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, “Richness, can you take me with you?”
Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.”
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. “Vanity, please help me!” “I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.
Sadness was close by so Love asked, “Sadness, let me go with you.” “Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!” Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went his own way. Realizing how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who Helped me?”
“It was Time,” Knowledge answered.
Moral Value:
“Time?” asked Love. “But why did Time help me?” Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.”
7. SAND AND STONE
A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. 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 an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one, who had been slapped, got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After the friend recovered from the near drowning, 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 Value:
Learn to write your hurts in the sand, and to carve your benefits in stone.
8. THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great effort an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.
"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling away?" "I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same." "Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "we have got plenty of food at present."
But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing, every day, corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew..
Moral Value:
Work today and you can reap the benefits tomorrow!
9. THE BUNDLE OF STICKS
A father had a family of sons who were always quarreling among themselves. When he failed to solve their fights with his advice, he decided to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks.
When they had done so, he placed the bundle into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, but were not able to do it.
Next, he opened the bundle, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons' hands, and asked them to break it, and they could do so very easily.
He then told them: "My sons, if you stay together and help each other, you will be as strong as this bundle, and no enemy can beat you; but if you are divided among yourselves, you will be broken as easily as these sticks."
The sons understood the message, thanked, and promised the father to always be together no matter what.
Moral Value:
Union gives strength.
10. THE DEVOTED MOTHER
A mother duck and her little ducklings were on their way to the lake one day. The ducklings were very happy following their mother and quack-quacking along the way.
All of a sudden the mother duck saw a fox in the distance. She was frightened and shouted, “Children, hurry to the lake. There’s a fox!”
The ducklings hurried towards the lake. The mother duck wondered what to do. She began to walk back and forth dragging one wing on the ground.
When the fox saw her he became happy. He said to himself, “It seems that she’s hurt and can’t fly! I can easily catch and eat her!” Then he ran towards her.
The mother duck ran, leading the fox away from the lake. The fox followed her. Now he wouldn’t be able to harm her ducklings. The mother duck looked towards her ducklings and saw that they had reached the lake. She was relieved, so she stopped and took a deep breath.
The fox thought she was tired and he came closer, but the mother duck quickly spread her wings and rose up in the air. She landed in the middle of the lake and her ducklings swam to her.
The fox stared in disbelief at the mother duck and her ducklings. He could not reach them because they were in the middle of the lake.
Moral Value:
Dear children, some birds drag one of their wings on the ground when an enemy is going to attack. In this way they fool their enemies into thinking they are hurt. When the enemy follows them this gives their children time to escape.