Learn English by reading stories that have been written in a very simple English. If you really want to improve your English then , learn it through stories. Stories are the source of collecting and gathering new vocabularies. It will make your English reading practice easier.
Learn English by reading stories that are amazing
There are almost more than ten inspiring and motivating stories with a number of word meaning, phrases and idioms.
1. Beautiful Flowers on Other Side
Once a young girl was very fond of gardening. She used to love flowers and had maintained herself a very beautiful garden. One day while looking through a flower catalogue, she found a very beautiful flower. She thought to herself, “I want to have it in my garden.”
She looked through the details of flower and ordered it’s seed and other planting thing necessary for it.
After this she looked through the garden and decided for a place to plant those seeds. When it arrived, she took every thing to the back of her house and there she planted it at the base of wall.
Plant grew vigorously with beautiful leaves all over the wall but there were no flowers. Just to see that beautiful flower bloom.. she continued to cultivate it, water it and took great care of it.
She tried every thing yet there was no sign of even a single flower in between those beautiful leaves and vines on the wall. Weeks went by but still no flower bloom. One morning she stood in front of that plant and felt disappointed as there was still no flower that she had seen in catalogue.
She thought about cutting it and plant something else in its place. Just then her neighbor called her out from behind the wall.
She was surprised as they never did talk much to each other. Her neighbor said, “Thank you!! Thank you so much for planting such beautiful flowers..”
She replied, “What??”
Neighbor replied, “You can’t imagine how much i have enjoyed looking at those flower. They are really beautiful..”
Listening to reply young woman walked through the gate into neighbor’s backyard and on neighbors side she saw that the vines was filled with flowers.
They were the most beautiful flowers she had ever seen and they were more beautiful than what she saw in catalogue. She saw that vines crept through crevices and even if hadn’t had any flower on her side of wall, it had luxuriantly on the other side of wall.
Moral: Just because you cannot see the good Result of your Labor doesn’t mean that it Bore no Fruit.
2. Getting Past Storm
Once a young lady was driving a car along side with her father seated on passenger seat.. Just after few miles they came upon a storm.
Girl asked her father, “What should i do father??”
Father replied, “Keep driving..”
Just after few meters she saw that other cars started to pull aside as storm was getting worse.
Girl got bit scared and again asked hi father, “Should i pull over too??”
Father replied, “No.. Keep driving..”
After few more meter she saw that most of the cars were pulling over.
Seeing this she slow down her car and said to her father, “Father.. I think i should pull over now as i can’t even see clearly ahead because of dust of cloud. Storm a head is terrible and everyone is pulling over..”
Her father again replied, “Keep driving..”
As she drove, storm seemed more terrible. It became more and more difficult for her to see and drive forward. She felt like she should stop car and pull over to some safe place but she continued to drive through storm as her father said her to keep driving.
She kept driving even through the storm. Soon see was able to see little more clear and better than before. After few miles she was out of storm on a dry land.
Father said, “Dear.. now you can pull over and get out..”
Girl replied, “But why now?? We are out of storm..”
Father smiled and replied, “When you get out, you can look at all those people who gave up and are still struggling because of storm.. You never gave up and keep going forward and because you never gave up your storm is now over.”
Moral: Enduring Mental Stress Through Difficult Time in Life is key to Success. During Hard times even Strong people Give up but if You keep Going Forward and Don’t give up.. You will be able to Over come Difficulties and Hard time will be Over.
3. Rich Lady and Little Kid..!!
On a very cold day, a little boy was standing outside a shoe store, barefooted.. He was shivering with cold and was looking through window at the shoes.
A rich lady came out of that store. While waiting for ride she saw that little boy. She approached him and said, “Kid, Why are you looking so earnestly in that window??”
Little boy replied, “I don’t have any shoes.. I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes..”
After listening this lady took that boy inside shoe store and asked clerk if she can get a bowl of water and towel. Clerk brought that in few minutes and then she took that boy at the back of store.
She removed her gloves and knelt down, cleaned and dried little boys hands and feet then she bought him back in to shoe store and asked clerk to bring pair of socks and shoes.
Clerk bought socks and shoes and gave them to her. She took those and again knelt down. Placing pair of socks upon the boy’s feet, she gave him a pair of shoes to wear. She bought some more pair of socks and gave them to him and patted him on head saying, “Kid, do you feel more comfortable now??”
As she was leaving, little kid caught her by hand and looked up to her with tears in his eyes and replied, “Are you God’s wife??”
4. Old Woman with Precious Stone..!!
Once a wise old women was traveling through Himalaya mountains and in her way she found a precious stone. She took it and kept it in her bag and continued her journey.
Next day on her way she met another traveler who was hungry and asked her for food. She opened her bag to give food to that man. When she opened her bag man saw that precious stone in her bag.
Man wanted to have that precious stone so he asked her to give that stone to him. Lady gave that stone to him without any hesitation and continued her journey.
Man was happy to get that precious stone. He knew that with that stone he never had to worry about money and it gave him security for a lifetime.
But after few days man returned to mountain with that precious stone. He looked for woman on mountains to return that stone to her. After some search he found her.
As he saw her, he went to her and said, “Thanks for giving me that precious stone other day but today i came back to return you that stone.. with a hope that you can give me something even more precious..
Please give me what you have within you.. that enabled you to give me that stone without any hesitation..”
5. Reading Bhagavad Gita
Once on a mountain farm lived an old man with his grandson. Old man used to wake up early in morning everyday and sat on table to read Bhagavad Gita.
His grandson used to admire his grandfather and wanted to be just like him, so he tried to do everything the way his grandfather does.
One day grandson went to his grandfather and said, “Dadu, I read Bhagavad Gita daily just like you but i am not able to understand most of it.
And whatever i am able to understand i forget it as soon as i close the book. If i forget what i read or what good is it doing me to read Bhagavad Gita??”
Grandfather was holding a coal basket. He turned to boy and handed him coal basket saying, “Go down to river and bring me a basket of water.”
Boy did as told but as soon as he could get to home all the water from the basket would get leaked.
Grandfather smiled and said, “Go back and try again but this time try to move a little faster.”
Boy agreed and this time he ran faster to reach home with water but even this time the basket was empty as he got home. Grandfather asked him to try again but every time basket get empty in the way.
Grandson was tired and said, “It’s impossible to carry water in a basket.. I can bring you a bucket full of water..”
Grandfather replied, “I don’t want bucket of water, i want you to bring water in coal basket only.. try harder..”
Boy knew that it would be impossible but still he tried again and this time he ran as fast as possible but again basket was empty.
Boy was tired. He said to his grandfather, “See dadu it’s useless..”
Grandfather replied, “You think it’s useless but look at the basket..”
Boy looked at the basket and saw that basket was looking much cleaner. He saw that all the coal stains were removed from the basket and now it was clean from inside and out.
Grandfather said, “You see that this basket is now clean from all stains. That’s what happens when you read Bhagavad Gita. You may not understand or remember what you read but it words will change you from inside and out. “
6. Sage Reply to Angry King
Once there was very famous sage and used to live outside of Ramnagar of Manipur Kingdom. He was known for his fortune telling and everyone in kingdom knew about him and accuracy of his fortune telling skill.
Maniraj was King of that Kingdom and heard words about saint and his skill. King wanted to greet him and also ask him about his future. So he invited sage to his palace.
King sent his soldiers to place of sage. Soldier went inside and told saint about King’s Invite for sage to his palace. Sage agreed to go with them. When sage came, King greeted him with respect and offered him seat in his court.
Once sage got comfortable King asked sage to tell him something about his future.
After observing into king’s horoscope, sage started telling him about fortunes which were to be blessed upon him in future. King got very happy listening to all the good things in prediction of his future and rewarded sage with gold and silver for every blessing he predicted.
Now, King asked sage to tell him about misfortune. Every time King had to listen to misfortune he got angry. At one point he felt so infuriated that he shouted at sage saying, “Stop..!! How dare you say such non sense..!!”
King pulled out his sword and pointed it toward sage and said, “I order you to tell me time of your own death..”
Sage saw that King was angry and after doing some calculation he calmly replied, “According to my calculations, My death will take place just an hour before your death..”
King was stunned to listen to that and realized his mistake. He felt sorry for his behavior and shouting to sage and sent him home with more wealth.
Moral: If we Thing Wisely we can get out of Difficult Situation.
7. Old Man’s Reply
Once there was a poor old man used to live in a village. He was poor yet even king’s were jealous of him because of a beautiful white horse he owned.
He was offered fabulous prices and money to sell that horse but old man would refuse saying, “This is not just horse to me, he is a person and a friend.. can you sell a person or a friend?? No.. it’s not possible.”
One day in morning when he went to stable he saw that horse was not there. News spread in the village and whole village gathered at his house.
They said, “You are foolish old man.. Everyone wanted that horse, Everyone knew that someday it would be stolen. You could have sell that horse for any price but yet you kept it. Now horse it gone, what a misfortune..!!”
Old man replied, “Fact is that horse is not in stable, everything else you say is a judgement. How do you know whether it’s a misfortune or not?”
People replied, “Don’t fool us.. A treasure has been lost, it’s a misfortune.”
Old man replied, “I just know that stable is empty and anything else i don’t know because this is just a fragment. Who knows what’s going to follow..”
People laughed at him and left. They said that he was crazy. He could have sell that horse and live a better life rather than living in misery and poverty. Now even that horse is stolen and he lost all hope of getting wealthy.
After few days horse came back from wilderness and with him came more horse of same breed.
People around village gathered again and said, “Old man, you were right. We are sorry for our judgement. You were right it wasn’t a misfortune but a blessing. Now, you have more beautiful horses. You can train them and sell them to earn money.”
Old man replied, “Again you are going too far. Just say that the horse is back and say that it’s a blessing to have more horses — but don’t judge. Who knows whether it is a blessing or not? It is only a fragment. It will pass too.”
This time people kept silent.
Old man’s only son started to train horses. Just few days later while training one of those wild horses old man’s son fell from the horse and his legs were broken.
Hearing this news people gathered and said, “You were right. Having more horses isn’t a blessing. Now your only son is injured because of this. In this old age what will you do with your crippled son..”
Old man replied, “Don’t go that far. Say only that my son has broken his legs. Who knows whether this is a misfortune or a blessing? — nobody knows. Again a fragment, Life comes in fragments and judgment is about the total.”
One month later, all the young one’s of the village were forced to join military as war broke out. All the people in the village were crying.
People came to old man and said, “Our son’s are gone for ever. Injury to your son proved to be blessing.. At least now he is alive living with you.”
Old man replied, “Nobody knows! Only say that — our sons have been forced to enter into the army and your son has not been forced but no one knows whether it is a blessing or a misfortune. Nobody will ever be able to know it. Only God knows.”
Moral: Similar is our Life.. When ever Something Bad happen, with just that Fragment we come to Conclusion but we Never think that there are Things which are completely Beyond Us.
We should not Judge any Situation just by with what we See. We Never know what’s going to come Next.
8. Crow Question to Other Birds
Once there was a Crow who was very satisfied in his life. He used to roaming looking all around.
One day he saw a Swan and saw that it is so white and thought to himself that am so black. Swan must be the happiest bird in the world.
He went to swan and said, “You must be happiest bird in the world. You are so white and am so black that no one likes me.”
Swan replied, “Actually, I was feeling that i was the happiest bird alive until i saw a parrot, which has two colors and i think parrot is the happiest bird in this world.”
Now crow approached parrot and explained all.
Parrot explained, “I lived happily until i saw a peacock. I have only two colors but peacock has multiple colors.”
Now the crow visited peacock in zoo and saw that hundred of people gathered to see him.
After people left, crow approached peacock and said, “Dear peacock, you are so beautiful. Everyday thousands of people come to see you but when anyone see me they just want me to move away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet.”
Peacock replied with a sadly, “I always thought i was the most beautiful and happy bird on planet but because of this beauty i am entrapped in this cage and from sometimes i have been thinking if i were a crow I could happily roam everywhere.”
Moral: It’s Problem of Human, that we make Unnecessary Comparison with others and become sad. We don’t Value what we have and all this Lead to vicious cycle of Unhappiness.
Secret to Happiness is to Value what God have given us and Discard comparison that only lead to Unhappiness.
9. Effect of Hatred on You
Once a kinder garden teacher had decided to let her class play a game. She told each child in her class to bring along a plastic bag containing few potatoes.
She asked children that each potato will represent the person that child hates. So the number of potatoes to be kept in that plastic bag depends on the number of person that child hates.
So when the decided day came, she asked children to bring those potatoes which represent the persons they hate. Teacher noticed that some had 2 potatoes in that plastic bag and some had 3 and some had 5 potatoes in that plastic bag.
Now, she told them that they have to carry that plastic bag with them for a week, wherever they go. After 3-4 days passed children started to complain because of the unpleasant smell that was coming from rotten potato.
Beside, those kids who had 5 potatoes had to carry heavier bags. After one week all children were relieved because the game was finally ended.
Now at week end teacher asked children, “How did you feel while carrying these potatoes with you for one week?”
Children started complaining about the trouble they had to got through because of those rotten potatoes and their unpleasant smell, wherever they go.
Now after all complaining and discussion at last teacher asked all children to sit silent and told them the hidden meaning behind the game.
Teacher said, “This is exactly the situation when you carry hatred for somebody inside your heart. This stench of hatred will contaminate purity of your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go.”
Teacher continued, “Now think for second, if you can not tolerate the unpleasant smell of rotten potatoes for just a week, can you imagine what it would be like to live with stench of hatred in your heart for lifetime??”
Moral: Hatred of someone will be a Burden to your Heart to Carry for Lifetime. Negativity about someone will keep peace of your own mind and heart away from you. Therefore, Forgiving others is Best attitude to Live a Peaceful and Happy Life.
10. Reflection of One self
In a land faraway lived a wise old man. Old man loved to watch people like merchants from other town and peasant who used to go to other towns to sell their products. So, Everyday he used to sit on bench placed just outside town to see people passing by that town.
When he used to sit there, His grandchild would come with him there and play around whole time till they go back home.
One day, a traveler approached him and started chatting with him.
Traveler asked, “Old man you have lived in this town, what kind of people of this town are like?”
Old man questioned him, “Where are you from?? What are people like over there in your town??”
Traveler replied, “I am from town from behind the mountains. People there are not very interesting. I found them very cold, mean and withdrawn.”
Old man with sad look replied, “Even people here are mean and not friendly or helpful.”
After this reply traveler left and continued on his journey.
Same day, a little later old man saw another traveler approaching him. They both chatted for little and even that traveler ended up asking same question to old man.
Traveler asked, “What are people living here are like?”
Old man questioned him, “Where are you from?? What are people like in your town??”
Traveler replied, “I am from town from behind the mountains. People there are very generous, kind and friendly.”
“Well, here also you will find people generous, friendly and warm.” replied old man.
After a while even that traveler left. His grand kid who were playing by his side watched all this.
So kid came up to his grand father and said, “Grand pa, you are telling lies. It’s not nice. You taught me not to lie and still you said different things about our town to them.”
Old man hold his grandson in his lap and said, “During those exchanges i didn’t said anything. They themselves said how things were happening. All i did was mirroring and reflecting their own ideas and their own ways of living.”
Moral: Way we Judge Others or Think about Other is Just of Reflection of our own Thinking and Attitude.
11. Ability to Change Myself..
One day all friends decided to visit their one friend who decided not to follow simple life and just dedicate his life praying and helping others. When they reached, all gather around him and started to talk and ask him questions about his life.
One of them asked, “Would you teach us what you have learned over the years.”
“I am old.”, replied man.
Another friend said, “Old and Wise. All these years we watched you praying. What do you talk to God about? What we should be praying for?”
Man smiled and replied, “In beginning when i was young, i used to kneel before God and ask him to give me strength to change human kind. Gradually i realized that this was beyond me. Then i started to pray to God to give me strength to change world around me.”
“Well, your wish to help people around you was granted as we know that you have helped many.”, said one of his friends.
Man said, “Well, i have helped many but i knew i still haven’t found perfect prayer. Only now at this age I realized what i should have been praying about from the start..!!”
Friends questioned, “What is that?”
“To be given the ability to change myself..”, replied man with smile.
Moral: When ever we feel troubled we think that We should try to change people and their attitude but What we need is to Understand that Sometimes Change need to Start with within ourselves.
12. The Manager
Once, Mr. Lion was looking for a manager to look after his business. Many animals applied for the post and were interviewed. Finally, came the turn of monkey.
When the monkey was questioned that why he should be appointed as the manager, he replied, “Sir, you are looking for a dynamic manager who can handle a variety of jobs.”
At this, the lion asked the monkey to prove his capability.
The monkey said, “Sir, in the past year, I have changed 10 jobs. Don’t you think, I am capable of doing various jobs.”
Lion laughed at the witty reply and appointed him as the manager.
13. The Mango Tree
Once there lived a lazy man in a village. His only source of income was a mango tree, which was planted in the backyard of his house.
One day, one of his relatives came to his house. At breakfast, lunch and dinner, only mangoes were served to the relative. He got fed up of this and thought of a plan.
At night, when the lazy man was sleeping, the relative quietly woke up, cut down the tree and fled away. Next day, when the man saw that the tree was cut down, he cried a lot.
After few years, the same relative again came to his house. By now, the man had worked and prospered. His condition had improved. He thanked the relative for making him realize his mistake.
14. The House
Once a rat that was feeling bored, came out of his hole to see the world. He went to a garden where he saw a big cat and got frightened. So, he hid himself under a big leaf that was the dwelling place of a tortoise.
The tortoise yelled at him, “What are you doing here?”
The rat fled from there in search of another shelter and happened to pass over a gardener’s feet. The gardener shouted at him, “What are you doing here? Go back to your home.”
The rat fled away from there and ran straight to his hole, took a sigh of relief and thought, ‘East or West, home is the
best.’