All Stories
Browse our complete collection of folk tales, Panchatantra stories, and moral stories from around the world.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Jackal and the Crocodile
A sweet-talking jackal tricks Miss Crocodile into ferrying him across a stream to a plum tree, and she spends the rest of the tale trying to pay him back.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Jackal and the Iguana
A starving jackal wearing old shoes as earrings sets himself up as a prince by the pond, until a wheezy iguana makes up a very different rhyme about him.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Jackal and the Partridge
A fussy jackal says a true friend must make him laugh, make him cry, feed him and save his life, so his friend the partridge sets out to do all four.
Indian Folk Tales
The Jewelled Arrow
Tricked into shooting his father’s magic arrow at a strange crane, a young prince follows the bird to the city of a cruel magician and falls in love.
Indian Folk Tales
The Jogi’s Punishment
A holy man who is not as holy as he seems convinces a king that his own daughter is an evil spirit, but a floating chest brings a surprising rescue.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Lambikin
Tiny Lambikin promises hungry beasts he will fatten at Granny’s, rides home inside a drumikin, then meets a Jackal who knows his voice.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Legend of Gwashbrari, the Glacier-Hearted Queen
Proud Westarwan, king of the Kashmir mountains, never looks down at the world, until icy Gwashbrari vows to make him bow to her before sunrise.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Magic Bed
A kind prince shares his cakes with the Ant-King and pulls a thorn from a tiger’s paw, and both friends help him win the dazzling Princess Lalun.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 6-8
The Monkey with the Tom-tom
A crafty monkey loses the tip of his tail, then swaps and tricks his way from a razor to firewood to puddings and finally to a drum he loves to beat.
Indian Folk Tales
Ages 9-12
The Mother and the Daughter Who Worshipped the Sun
Sent from home after giving half her mother’s cake to a hungry priest, a poor girl marries a prince and begs the Sun to help when her secret comes out.
Indian Folk Tales
The Prince and the Fakir
A childless king is promised two sons by a wandering fakir, on one condition: when the boys are born, the fakir will come back and take one of them away.
Indian Folk Tales
The Snake-Woman and King Ali Mardan
King Ali Mardan falls under the spell of a weeping girl he finds in the forests of Kashmir, until a wise jogi tells him what she truly is.