30 Short Stories with Moral Lessons for Kids
When imparting the vital value of the story lessons to your children, short stories with moral lessons are the best way to go. They have this really beautiful way of imparting invaluable lessons that make them all the more relatable and endearing.
We have all grown up listening to short stories with the value of the Story lessons, and it’s time our children heard them, too.
30 Short Moral Stories for Kids
Here are some of the best values of the short moral stories for kids. Each short story with the moral lesson presented below has enlightened children.
After all, a story becomes a great story, when it’s a story with a moral lesson
- The Hare and the Tortoise :
- The Dog and the Bone :
- The Boy Who Cried Wolf :
- The Golden Touch :
- The Thirsty Crow :
- Lazy John :
- The Fox and the Grapes :
- The Rose and the Cactus :
- The Ant and the Grasshopper :
- The Ugly Duckling :
- The Milkmaid and her Pail :
- The Wise Old Owl :
- The Elephant and the Ants :
- The Three Little Pigs :
- The Golden Egg :
- Elephant and Friends :
- The Fox and the Stork :
- The Monkey and the Crocodile :
- A Glass of Milk(H3):
- The Bear and Two Friends :
- The foolish thief:
- The Stork and The Crab:
- The Miser and his Gold:
- The Puppy and The Well :
- The Blue Jackal:
- The Mouse and the Lion:
- The hidden treasure:
- The Slave and the Lion:
- The Old Man in the Village:
- The Wise Old Man:
Thinking he would easily win, the hare took a nap. The tortoise won the race.
Value of the Story: Overconfidence can ruin you.
A dog that had a juicy bone in its mouth let go of the bone when he saw another dog with a bone he wanted. The bone fell into a river and sank.
Value of the Story: Envy will make you lose what you already have.
A boy shepherd would constantly cry ‘Wofl!’, creating false alarms amongst villagers who ultimately didn’t land up when the wolf came. Value of the Story: Nobody believes a liar, even when he speaks the truth.
A king called Midas asked the god Dionysus to grant his wish of turning into gold whatever he touched. He was happy until his daughter, hugging him, turned into gold too.
Value of the Story: Greed will always lead to your downfall.
Once a crow had a beak too long to reach water inside a pot. Seeing some stones, he placed them inside so the water level rose and he could drink.
Value of the Story: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
John, too lazy to pluck apples from the tree, lay under the apple tree, waiting for a solitary apple to fall. It never did and John went hungry.
Value of the Story: Laziness will get you nowhere.
Unlike John, the fox kept jumping in the air to get grapes but gave up after a few tries. He called it a case of ‘sour grapes’.
Value of the Story: Nothing in life comes easy.
The rose forever ridiculed the cactus on its looks, until a scorching summer when the rose wilted but the cactus remained standing strong.
Value of the Story: Never ridicule anyone based on their looks.
The ant worked hard all summer to store food for winter, while the grasshopper played. When winter came, the ant relaxed while the grasshopper starved.
Value of the Story: Always save something for a rainy day.
A duckling shunned because of its looks by the other ducks, drifted sadly away until it realized it had grown up to be a beautiful swan.
Value of the Story: Never judge others on their appearance.
Thinking of all the things she didn’t have, Molly dropped all the milk from her pails on the way to the market.
Value of the Story: Don’t count your chickens till they’re hatched.
A wise old owl silently observed people around him. Some became better; others, worse. The owl only got wiser.
Value of the Story: Speaking less and listening more makes you wiser.
The mighty elephant constantly bullied the tiny ants who once had enough and bit the elephant inside his trunk, leaving him in excruciating pain.
Value of the Story: Treat others with kindness.
The three pigs made houses. Two lazy pigs made feeble houses, one of straw and the other, of sticks. The hard-working pig made a house of brick and stone. The wolf that huffed and puffed broke down only the first two houses.
Value of the Story: Hard work always pays off.
A farmer cut open his goose that laid a golden egg a day, to get all eggs at once, but in vain. Value of the Story: Think before you act
A rabbit, monkey, and frog refused to be friends with an elephant but changed their minds after he saved them from a tiger.
Value of the Story: Friends come in all shapes and sizes.
The stork, invited to dinner by the fox, couldn’t drink soup from the shallow soup bowls. When the fox went over for dinner to the stork’s, he couldn’t drink from the long vases either.
Value of the Story: Selfishness comes back.
A crocodile, friends with a monkey, once told his friend while carrying him on his back to his house on the other side of the river, that his wife wanted to eat his heart. The smart monkey told the crocodile to return before climbing up a tree and telling him the friendship was over. Value of the Story: Choose your friends wisely.
Once a girl gave a glass of milk to a starving newspaper boy and refused payment. Years later, when she was ailing and penniless, her bill was paid in full. It read: ‘Paid in full, with a glass of milk.’ Value of the Story: No good deed goes unrewarded.
Once in a forest, a bear attacked two friends. One friend climbed up a tree without helping his friend, who lay motionless, playing dead until the bear left. When asked what the bear whispered to him, he said ‘Never trust a false friend’.
Value of the Story: A true friend will always stand by you.
Birbal, suspecting a thief from among a merchant’s servants, gave them each a stick, telling them the thief’s stick would grow longer by three inches overnight. The next day, one servant’s stick was three inches shorter. The thief had trimmed it to compensate for any growth. Value of the Story: The truth will always come out.
The stork convinced his fellow creatures to let him carry them to another pond, falsely telling them their pond was going to dry. When the crab’s turn came, upon seeing fish bones on the ground, he pierced the stork’s throat until it fell.
Value of the Story: Too much greed will only cause you harm.
A miser was once robbed of the gold that he kept hidden under a stone in his garden and counted each night. When his neighbour asked him why he didn’t keep it inside so he could easily spend it, he replied he was never going to spend it anyway.
Value of the Story: Possessions are only as useful as what they are used for.
Despite his mother telling him not to go near a well, a puppy fell into it because he wanted to fight the dog inside, not knowing it was his reflection.
Value of the Story: Always listen to your elders.
A jackal who had fallen into a tub of blue paint fooled the animals in the Jungle into believing he was their chosen king, and had them serve him until one day he cried like a jackal in response to another jackal’s cry and was destroyed by the other animals.
Value of the Story: Never pretend to be something you’re not.
A mouse begged a lion who had captured him, to be spared. One day, seeing the lion ensnared in a hunter’s net, the mouse called all his friends and they cut the net and freed the lion. Value of the Story: A friend in need is a friend indeed.
A dying father told his sons there was treasure in farmland. They dug it but to no avail. A stranger told them to plant some seeds, which they painstakingly did. That led to an abundance of crops. Selling them, they became rich.
Value of the Story: No pain, no gain.
A slave, mistreated by his master, escaped to the jungle where he helped a lion by removing a thorn from its paw. Later, when his master sent him to the lion’s den, not only did the lion spare him but he let him free other animals, too.
Value of the Story: Good deeds will always come back to you.
An old man in a village, forever unsmiling and complaining, suddenly turned cheerful. When asked his secret, he said he had been chasing happiness for eighty years until he gave it up, deciding to appreciate life instead.
Value of the Story: Seek fun, not happiness.
A wise old man told some people a joke one day. They all laughed. He told them the same joke again and they laughed less. The final time, they didn’t laugh at all. He told them it was the same with worry. Value of the Story: Worrying is a waste of time and energy.
Reasons to Start Reading Short Story
- Short stories are extremely well-written :
- Short stories are short:
- Short stories teach literary devices :
- Short stories enable comparisons :
- Short stories offer historical, social, and literary context :
Short story writers, like poets, have a limited amount of space to completely develop their plot, characters, theme, and so on. Every word, every sentence, and every event must be more deliberate than similar parts in a narrative. If you want to see examples of great writing, look no further than the short story.
A large novel can often be intimidating for readers. A short narrative can be read in one sitting or read several times, which is an excellent reading method. Multiple readings enable more insight and analysis. Unless you truly love a novel, you are unlikely to read it again. This is not the case with short stories!
Symbolism? Allegory? Theme? Metaphor? Short moral stories for kids? Yep. Short stories have them all.
Because short stories take up little time to read, readers can choose numerous short stories to compare and contrast, which is another excellent reading approach!
Short stories are as powerful as novels in giving historical and social context. To truly understand a society, listen to its stories. Pairing short stories with a moral lesson in a historical context is a fantastic idea. Often, this method helps pupils remember historical context better.
At EuroKids we place the strongest emphasis on our children inculcating the best Value of the Story values, and use everything in our power, including fables like the ones outlined here, to ensure they grow up to be Morally sound individuals.
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