Best Motivational Stories

A Pound of Butter

There was a farmer named Chris. Chris sold a pound of butter to the baker named Harry. One day the Harry decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting a pound and he found that he was not. This angered him and he took the Chris to court. The judge asked the Chris if he was using any measure. Chris replied to the judge, “I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.” The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?” Chris replied “Your Honour, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound loaf of bread from him. Every day when the baker Harry brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker Harry.”
What is the moral of the story?

A pound of Butter

” We get back in life what we give to others.”

We expect others to be honest but charity begins at home. We need to ask our self this question first before pointing our finger towards others: Am I giving fair value for the wages or money I hope to make? Honesty and dishonesty become a habit. Some people practice dishonesty and can lie with a straight face. Others lie so much that they don’t even know what the truth is. But did they deceive others or themselves?

Drops of Oil : The secret of happiness

Once upon a time there was a shopkeeper named Robert. Robert sent his son Andrew to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for 40 days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.

Rather than finding a saintly man, Andrew on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man’s attention.

The wise man listened attentively to the Andrew’s explanation of why he had come, but told him that he didn't have time just then to explain the secret of happiness. He suggested that the boy look around the palace and return in two hours.

“Meanwhile, I want to ask you to do something”, said the wise man, handing the Andrew a teaspoon that held two drops of oil. “As you wander around, carry this spoon with you without allowing the oil to spill”.

Drops of Oil : The secret of happiness

Andrew began climbing and descending the many stairways of the palace, keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he returned to the room where the wise man was.

“Well”, asked the wise man, “Did you see the Persian tapestries that are hanging in my dining hall? Did you see the garden that it took the master gardener ten years to create? Did you notice the beautiful parchments in my library?”

Andrew was embarrassed, and confessed that he had observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise man had entrusted to him.

“Then go back and observe the marvels of my world”, said the wise man. “You cannot trust a man if you don’t know his house”.

Andrew picked up the spoon and returned to his exploration of the palace, this time observing all of the works of art on the ceilings and the walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around him, the beauty of the flowers, and the taste with which everything had been selected. Upon returning to the wise man, he related in detail everything he had seen.

“But where are the drops of oil I entrusted to you?” asked the wise man. Looking down at the spoon he held, Andrew saw that the oil was gone.

“Well, there is only one piece of advice I can give you”, said the wisest of wise men. “The secret of happiness is to see all the marvels of the world and never to forget the drops of oil on the spoon”.

Author: Anonymous

More Stories:

Shake it off and step up

Sand and Stone

Sharks In Life

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. It’s essential to good Sushi. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went very far in the sea. Greater the distance they travelled for fishing, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste of Sushi.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.
They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go very far and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish. So, frozen fish fetched low prices and problem remained.


To go one step further, fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

How Japanese Fish Stay Fresh:

Sharks in life : Inspirational Phenomenon

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are fresh because they have been challenged.


Have you realized that some of us are also living in a pond but most of the time tired & dull. We stop questioning our abilities and purpose of our life. We end up like a bad taste Sushi. If we want to taste good then we need Sharks in life.Challenges in our life are like Sharks. They keep us fresh, active and lively.

More Stories :

Drops of Oil : The secret of happiness

The Salt Seller and His Donkey 

Once upon a time there was a salt seller named Joe. Joe lived in a small village. He used to buy salt from a nearby town. He had a donkey called Jack to carry this salt load. There were many streams to be crossed to reach the town.

salt seller and his donkey

One fine day, the Joe was returning after his purchase from town. The Jack was loaded with salt bags. While they were crossing a stream, accidentally the Jack (donkey) slipped and fell into the stream. A lot of salt got dissolved in the water. When the Jack (donkey) got up the load became very light.

From that day onwards, whenever the Joe returned from town after salt purchase, the Jack began to tumble half-way across one stream or the other. The Joe became suspicious as he incurred losses in his business.

Once Joe purchased bundles of cotton from the town and loaded his donkey Jack with bundles of cotton. Jack felt the load to be unusually light. He thought "Today, I am going to tumble and this load is going to become much lighter".

On their way home, as usual, the Jack tumbled and fell into a stream. When Jack tried to getting up, the load pulled the Jack down. The cotton had absorbed water and become much heavier.

Now Joe understands the reason behind his loss. He gave hard beatings to make the Jack get up and walk. From then on, Jack never tumbled while crossing streams.

Similarly sometime we think about some short-cut to avoid the hard work. But the habit of doing so creates even a bigger problem for us.

Self help story : Sand and Stone

Once upon a time there were two friends John and Mac. Both John and Mac were fun loving and care free. One day they planned a trip through the dessert. While travelling through the dessert they forgot the way. They were tired as the sun was beating down on their heads. They were thirsty for water and suddenly they began to argue. The argument got more and more heated and eventually John struck Mac across the face. It was really unfortunate and Mac felt hurt inside, but without anything to say, he wrote in the sand: "Today, my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking, until eventually they came across an oasis, where they decided to stop and bathe. Mac jumped in and began to wash, while John sat back and relaxed. Suddenly Mac began to scream and shout, he had developed a cramp and was having difficulty keeping his head above water and he was drowning.


John dived in after him, and brought him gently to shore. When Mac recovered from the shock, he scratched a message on a nearby stone:

"Today, my best friend saved my life"

John who had saved and slapped his best friend Mac, asked him, "Why, after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone?"

Mac smiled and replied:

"When a friend hurts us, we should write his deeds in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness can blow it away, and when a friend does something good, we should engrave it in stone, where it shall remain for eternity."
But most of the time we are doing just opposite. We write some minor mistakes of near ones on stone and forget their good deeds and spoil our beautiful relationship with them. Remember, forgiveness is the key to happy and long lasting relationships.

More stories :

Drops of Oil : The secret of happiness

Sharks in life

Shake it off and step up

The locked door : never assume

Why do people shout in anger

Change your perspective:  DIRTY LAUNDRY

This simple story gives us a very strong message that, just change your perspective and you will see a different world....
A young couple moved into a new neighbourhood.The next morning, while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbour hang the washed laundry outside."That laundry is not very clean", she said, "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."
Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbour would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:Look! She has learnt how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this.
The husband said: "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows!"

Change your perspective : Dirty Laundry

And so it is with life:
What we see when we are watching others, depends on the purity of the window through which we look.
Before we give any criticism, it might be a good idea to check our state of mind and ask ourselves if we are ready to see the good rather than to be looking for something in the person we are about to judge.
Most of the time if we change our perspective towards a particular thing we will see a better picture.