How Short Stories Can Instruct Us on How to Interact in Society

By the way, I didn’t write these stories. Just resharing them here. These are financial lessons wrapped in life lessons. They stand the test of time.

Table of Contents

The Donkey and the Tiger

The donkey told the tiger, “The grass is blue.”

The tiger replied, “No, the grass is green.”

The discussion became heated, and the two decided to submit the issue to arbitration, so they approached the lion. As they approached the lion on his throne, the donkey started screaming: ′′Your Highness, isn’t it true that the grass is blue?”

The lion replied: “If you believe it is true, the grass is blue.”

The donkey rushed forward and continued: ′′The tiger disagrees with me, contradicts me, and annoys me. Please punish him.”

The king then declared: ′′The tiger will be punished with 3 days of silence.”

The donkey jumped with joy and went on his way, content and repeating ′′The grass is blue, the grass is blue…”

The tiger asked the lion, “Your Majesty, why have you punished me, after all, the grass is green?” The lion replied, ′′You’ve known and seen the grass is green.” The tiger asked, ′′So why do you punish me?”

The lion replied, “That has nothing to do with the question of whether the grass is blue or green. The punishment is because it is degrading for a brave, intelligent creature like you to waste time arguing with an ass, and on top of that, you came and bothered me with that question just to validate something you already knew was true!”

The Moral of the Story?

The biggest waste of time is arguing with the fool and fanatic who doesn’t care about truth or reality, but only the victory of his beliefs and illusions. Never waste time on discussions that make no sense.

There are people who, for all the evidence presented to them, do not have the ability to understand. Others are blinded by ego, hatred, and resentment, and the only thing that they want is to be right even if they aren’t.

When IGNORANCE SCREAMS, intelligence moves on.

The Cows and the Buffalos

There’s a Native American story about how buffalo respond to thunderstorms versus a cow.

A herd of buffalos sees a thunderstorm up in the clouds ahead. Instinctually, they run straight toward that storm. Conversely, the herd of cows sees the storm, they run away from it. Why is this important?

This is because, by the buffalo running towards that thunderstorm, they actually decrease their time underneath the rain and lightning. In contrast, as the thunderstorm comes towards them, the cows run away from it. They dread the eventual storm, prolonging their anxiety and stress as it continues to follow them. They ended up being overtaken by the storm and run with it.

Thus staying in the storm for longer.

Thoughts on these different stories

The point of that story is that there are always thunderstorms in our life. Some face them.

Many more run away from them.

When the next thunderstorms or challenges hit, be encouraged to face them.

Face them in your imperfect state. Embrace any lessons you can glean and emerge from the other side. This will not be easy. It will be painful and it will challenge you.

This will help you build confidence for the next challenge. Additionally, this can help decrease the stress, angst, and anxiety related to that challenge.

Which animal will you be when the storm comes? Also, aim to surround yourself with the herd of buffalos.