AVARICE

A   V   A   R   I   C   E
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 It is an undisputed fact that an avaricious human being is never content with his possessions.His yearnings to acquire more and more vie with the sky!Sometimes his greed boomerangs upon himself as the following famous fable illustrates-
    Once a peasant tamed a beautiful goose.It was a miraculous bird. It laid a golden ovum every day.The peasant made both ends meet easily and comfortably by selling the golden eggs.But he was as greedy as a hog.He wanted to acquire oodles of money in the shortest possible time
 One day he thought an outlandish plan.He chortled,"Why should I wait for the ova every day?If I slit open the tummy of the bird and scoop out all the golden ova simultaneously,then I would become zillions times rich and would be as rich as BILL GATES."Thus thinking,he without weighing all the pros and cons of his stupid idea,instantaneously ripped open the gut of the poor goose with a sharp edged weapon.Hot blood splattered all over the floor.But he found no ovum inside the entrails of the dead goose.It was no more alive to deliver the golden egg every day.The nincompoop peasant burst into tears and wept bitterly over his mulishness but it was of no use to cry over the spilt milk.
MORAL----AVARICE IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVILS!!
         [ DEVENDRA  SRIVASTAVA]
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B E T R A Y A L

..               BETRAYAL
               @#$%&*+@
    Once two young chaps were close pals.They spent their time with each other practically all the day.Even they used to attend the call of the nature simultaneously!
  One fine evening,they were ambling along a wood,enjoying themselves the gentle breeze and scenic beauty.Joking and poking fun at each other,they marched on exultingly.Their loud guffaws rent the sky.Suddenly,as the ill luck would have it,they saw a ferocious wild bear with bloodshot eyes dashing menacingly towards them.All their joys departed to the limbo in the twinkling of an eye and both were paralyzed with tremendous fear.
   One friend knew how to climb up the tree.Without least bothering about his friend and leaving him in the lurch,he clambered up a larch instantaneously and perched himself safe on a high branch.The other friend was as helpless as an infant and was in imminent danger of being gobbled up by the famished beast.In sheer desperation,he decided "to play possum'.He lay down on the ground motionless.The monstrous thick-furred quadruped roaring fiercely,reached the spot.He smelled and sniffed at the ears of the friend lying down on the ground.Presuming him to be dead,the beast disappeared into the dense jungle.
  The friend on the tree climbed down And said to the friend lying down on the ground,"get up,the bear is gone."He asked him what the bear had whispered into his ears?
       Gurgling with unbridled ire at the betrayal by his chum at the critical juncture,he yelled,"The bear told me that your pal is false and fake one.Never trust him."
     Without brooking any delay he jettisoned all his friendship and relationship with him,lock,stock and barrel.
   Moral----BEWARE OF FALSE FRIENDS!
                     --------DEVENDRA  SRIVASTAVA
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BRAINS OR BRAWN ?

               BRAINS OR BRAWN?
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 It would be admitted on every hand that brain is,as sure as eggs in eggs, more important and necessary than physical power.The following fable corroborates it.
 Once there resided a brawny crow on a high branch of a larch.It was the time of sweltering summer.The crow was very thirsty.He searched high and low for a draught of water but all his efforts proved a wild goose chase as all the ponds and rivers were practically dried up.He desperately made another effort. Luckily,he chanced to see an earthen pitcher in a garden.He was cock-a-hoop to see the pitcher.But all his happiness vanished into thin air in the twinkling of an eye when he dived down to the pitcher and saw that it contained very little water at its bottom and his beak could not reach the surface of the water.
 The physical power of the crow could not do the needful.The hapless creature began to chew the cud as to how to get at the water.His brain power came to his rescue by giving him an idea.There were lying some pebbles near the pitcher.He picked them one after another and dropped them into the pitcher.Though it was a ticklish task,yet he went on dropping the pebbles.The water began to rise up.It gradually rose to the brim of the pitcher.The fatigued crow quaffed the water to his heart's content and flew off happily,cawing melodiously.

MORAL OF THE STORY------BRAIN POWER IS BETTER THAN PHYSICAL POWER!!
                       
                  [DEVENDRA  SRIVASTAVA]

    PRESENCE  OF  MIND
@#$%^&*@#$%^&*@#$
 It can not be controverted that presence of mind in emergency can save a person from disaster as is evident from the following story----
   Once a donkey was happily grazing,humming his favourite song.As the ill luck would have it,he saw a ferocious wolf dashing towards him.A thrill of horror shimmied down his spine as he was in imminent danger of being devoured by the famished wolf.He was a clever donkey and he instantaneously thought of a trick to save himself.He started limping badly.The wolf came up and said,"Why do you limp? Are you lame?"
   The donkey responded," I,unfortunately, impaled my hind foot on a big thorn.It has stuck deep into my foot and is giving me intense pain.Would you be kind enough to pull it out?"
  The wolf felt himself to be on cloud nine.He chuckled to himself,"Now I shall be able to put his leg between my sharp teeth" As he came behind the donkey,he slugged so ferociously with his foot in the wolf's mouth that his jaw was badly wounded.The wolf scampered away yelping with intense pain.
Moral of the story:--It was his presence of mind that saved the donkey from certain death!!
          ------DEVENDRA  SRIVASTAVA