Dove and the hunter

Once at dawn, when the moon was setting over western mountains, a cunning hunter started his day with his net on his shoulder and a bag of grains in his hand. He found the right spot of land and scattered few fistful of grains on the ground and then spread out his net over the grains. He then left the place sure to find some birds caught in his net when he returned later.

Just then, the leader of doves with his flock was flying around in search of food. They saw the grains and flew down to pick up the grains. Whoops! In a trice they were all caught in a net. A terrific commotion broke out amongst the trapped doves.

Then the leader cried out, "Friends, we are in great danger. Unless we pull ourselves together immediately and think of a way to get out, there is no doubt that we shall all be caged. Now I propose that we all catch hold of the net at the same time and fly upwards together."

But unfortunately the leader's proposal was met with doubts and objections because most others in the flock thought themselves to be equally competent, intelligent, experienced and deserving to be the leader. Failing to achieve a consensus on the plan of action they all decided to take the service of a reputed consultant. So after much discussion, the wisest of the birds, the Owl,was appointed as the consultant.

The owl arrived and pretended to observe the situation. He heard the leader's proposal. But he did not give them a prompt solution for two reasons- first, how could he justify his hefty consultancy fee if the solution came so fast ans second, being an owl he could act and see only after sunset. But, a consultant that he was he knew his job too well. He immediately formed three syndicates out of the doves and gave them one topic each to study and submit reports-'team strength vis-a-vis the weight of the net', 'How many grains each dove must eat to generate enough energy required for the task and Feasibility study on finding a mouse to cut the net.' The doves enthusiastically started their syndicate discussions and prepared Power-Point presentations  on the laptops (of course, arranged by the Owl). Whether effective or not but each syndicate instinctively knew the presentation must look  impressive.

The sun was setting and the Owl could now act. He suggested the solution, 'all catch hold of the net at the same time and fly upwards together." They all agreed to act as suggested by the Owl. Oops! But it was too late. The hunter was already back to take his day's catch.

MORAL: 

Appropriate decision taken in time is better than perfect decision taken later.

Thirsty Crow

One hot summer day, a thirsty crow flew all over the fields looking for water. The crow was very thirsty. He flew here and there but could not find water anywhere. After a lot of search, at last, he found an old water pot lying in the out yard of a house. He flew up to the pot and peeped in. He was very happy to see some water in it. But, unfortunately the water level was too low for his beak to reach. He tried to reach for the water but could not reach it.

Just then he saw a small boy sitting in the veranda and reading the story of 'The Thirsty Crow'. He got clue from the story and started looking for the stones to drop in the pot in order to bring the water level up. He looked here and there. Fortunately, he found stones lying around. But the stones were fewer than needed to bring the water level up. An idea flashed suddenly. The crow picked up a big stone and hit the pot. The pot broke. The crow could now reach the bottom of the pot to quench his thirst. He drank the water and flew away happily.

 Moral of the story : 
When the resources are limited, work smart.

Rabbit & Lion

Once upon a time there lived a ferocious lion in the forest. It was a greedy lion and started killing animals in the forest indiscriminately. Seeing this, the animals gathered and decided to approach lion with the offer of one animal of each species volunteering itself to be eaten by the lion everyday. So every day, turn by turn, one animal offered itself to be eaten by the ferocious lion.

Eventually one day it was the turn of rabbits  to send one among them as the offering to the lion. The rabbits drew a lot to decide who among them would go to the lion. It turned out to be a young rabbit. The young rabbit's parents felt very sad. Their son had recently acquired a post graduate degree in management and they had been looking forward to his bright career. But there was no way they could evade the misfortune. So they sent their son to the lion with a heavy heart.

On the way to the lion's den, the rabbit recalled a case study he had done about the wise rabbit that had fooled a lion by making it jump into a well, thereby causing it to die. He also recalled all the theory that he had been taught in his management school. So the rabbit analyzed the problem, identified the objective, listed the alternative courses of action, decided the best alternative , constructed a model and derived a solution from the model to escape being eaten by the lion.

Then as planned, it took its own sweet time to go to lion. As expected the lion got impatient on not seeing any animal come by and swore to kill all animals the next day. The rabbit then strode along to the lion by sunset. The lion was angry and the rabbit sold him all the well planned story about the another lion eating away all in the group of rabbits except him. He added that the other lion was challenging his supremacy of his lordship, the lion. The lion as expected got enraged. The rabbit led him towards a deep well filled with water. Then he showed the lion its reflection in the water of the well. The lion was furious and started growling and naturally its image in the water, the other lion, was also equally angry. In its effort to haste lion's jump into the well the rabbit came forward and provoked, "your lordship, jump in and kill him." Oops...the lion saw the rabbit's reflection as well and heard the echo of its voice as well. The lion lost no time in sensing the whole plot and enjoyed the delicious meat of the silly rabbit.


Moral : Tried and tested methods too can be ineffective unless executed prudently.