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The folklore surrounding pianist Ignace Pederewski includes this story. A mother, wishing to encourage her son's progress at the piano, bought tickets for a Pederewski performance.
They had seats near the front of the concert hall.
The mother found a friend to talk to and the boy slipped away. When eight o'clock came around, the spotlights came on, and only then did they notice the boy at the piano bench innocently picking out "Twinkle, twinkle little star."
The master appeared on the stage and quickly moved to the keyboard.

The Legend of the Candle

One evening a man took a small candle from a box and began to climb a long winding stairway.
"Where are we going?" asked the candle.
"We're going up higher than the house to show ships the way to the harbour."
"But no ship in the harbour could ever see my light," said the candle. "It is so very small."

Holman Hunt Picture

The artist Holman Hunt painted a picture of Christ standing and knocking at the door of a cottage. He called together his artist friends and asked them to look at it critically and see if they could find any mistakes in it.
They looked and looked and examined the picture closely, but no one could find anything but admiration

God is always in Control

A Muslim man in Egypt killed his
wife because she was reading the
Bible and then buried her with
their infant baby and an 8-year
...
old daughter. The girls were
buried alive! He then reported to
the police that an uncle killed the
kids. 15 days later, another family
member died.

Some valuable time for a son

SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"
DAD: "Yeah sure, what is it?"
SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"
DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?"
SON: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"
DAD: "If you must know, I make $100 an hour."
SON: "Oh! (With his head down).

The story of Education

One night,  three horsemen were riding across a desert. As they crossed the dry bed of a river, out of the darkness a voice called "Halt!"
They obeyed. The voice then told them to dismount, pick up a handful of pebbles, put them in their pockets and remount.
The voice then said, "You have done as I commanded. Tomorrow at sun-up you will be both glad and sorry." Mystified, the horsemen rode on.
When the sun rose, they reached into their pockets and found that a miracle had happened. The pebbles

William Tell Story

At one time one of the great princes of Europe tried to conquer Switzerland and take away the freedom of its people. But the people fought so bravely that instead of being conquered they conquered the tyrants and drove them away.

In those far-off times the greatest ruler in Europe was the Emperor, and his empire was divided into many states, over each of which ruled a prince or king who acknowledged the Emperor as overlord. When an Emperor died the kings and princes met together and chose another Emperor from among their number.

Switzerland was one of the countries which owned the Emperor as overlord. But the Swiss were a free people. They had no king or prince over them, but a governor only, who was appointed by the Emperor.

Austria was another of the states of the great empire, and at one time a Duke of Austria was made ruler of Switzerland. Because of its great beauty, this duke cast greedy eyes upon Switzerland and longed to possess it for his very own.

Contented Fisherman

A wealthy tourist, complete with dark glasses and cameras, went strolling along a tropical beach and found a fisherman dozing along side his canoe.
"Why aren't you out catching fish?" began the tourist.
"I've caught enough for today," answered the villager.
"But why don't you go out and catch more and make some money and then buy a net so you can catch even more?"
"What for?"

The Good Samaritan of Modern time

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.

Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.”

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.

Loving Mom who had one eye

My mom only had one eye. I hated her… She was such an embarrassment. She cooked for students and teachers to support the family.

There was this one day during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me. I was so embarrassed.

How could she do this to me? I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school one of my classmates said, “EEEE, your mom only has one eye!”

I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear. I confronted her that day and said, “If you’re only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don’t you just die?”

The only Cab left

Twenty years ago, I drove a cab for a living. One time I arrived in the middle of the night for a pick up at a building that was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.

Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too many impoverished people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked.

The Stonecutter

Once upon a time there lived a stonecutter in a small village. All day long he worked hard, cutting the hard stones and making the shape which were needed by his customers. His hands were hard and his clothes were dirty.
One day he went out to work on a big stone. It was very hard to work and the sun was very hot. After spending several hours cutting the stone, he sat down in the shade and soon fell asleep.
After sometime, he heard sound of somebody coming. Walking up he saw a longprocessionof people. There were many soldiers and attendants and in the middle, in apalanquin, carried by strong people at the king .
How wonderful it mustbe to bethegreat kingthought the stonecutter. How happy I would be if i were the king instead of a poor stonecutter.
As he said these words, a strange thing happened. The stonecutter found himself dressed in silk clothes and shining jewels. His hands were soft and he was sitting in a comfortable palanquin.

Holding your Dream

I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch in San Ysidro. He has let me use his house to put on fund-raising events to raise money for youth at risk programs.

The last time I was there he introduced me by saying, “I want to tell you why I let Jack use my horse. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who would go from stable to stable, race track to race track, farm to farm and ranch to ranch, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school career was continually interrupted. When he was a senior, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to be and do when he grew up.

Kindness is Priceless

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?” “You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness.” He said, “Then I thank you from my heart.”