Staying motivated and inspired when faced with life challenges and obstacles is not always easy. However stories have the power to infuse energy and power to inspire and uplift us.

It provides the strength and courage to keep us going. Through this story, we will get to know the power in positivity, the importance of perseverance and the effect of high determination.

Motivational and Inspirational Short Stories : An Act of a Good Soul

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer who had a little land. His name was Tuan and he was a very kind and good-natured person. He lived in a hut on his land with his wife and children and earned by selling whatever crops he could produce on his small land.

Tuan loved to help others. Whenever someone fell ill or needed something badly, Tuan was there to help that person. If someone died in the village, Tuan assisted the family members of the deceased person in whichever way he could. If anyone fell ill at night, Tuan was right beside the village doctor to help him prepare the medicines and tend to the sick. There seemed to be none who hated this man. He appeared to be loved by one and all.

But there was one person who hated Tuan with all his heart. He was Juan, a neighbour of Tuan, who lived in the land next to him. A lazy person by nature, Juan hardly put in as much effort to cultivate his land as Tuan did to produce crops in his own. So when the harvest season arrived every year, Juan found that he had very few crops to sell. Tuan on the other hand, earned a handsome profit through the selling of his produces.

One year, Juan could no longer contain his jealousy. Just days before Tuan was to reap his harvest, Juan set fire to his crops at night. Tuan was asleep at this time and it was only the alertness of one of his other neighbours that saved much of his crops from being perished in the deadly flames of the fire that Juan had lighted.

When the flames were doused, Tuan saw which direction the fire had started from. Juan’s animosity towards him was unknown to Tuan. But he let the matters rest and decided to take action only if he saw Juan repeating his dastardly act once again.

That year, Tuan managed to sell the rest of his crops at a good price but he could not make much profit for a good part of his produces had been burnt. He had a heavy heart but he did not like to tell anyone about it.

Only days later, Tuan was awakened by the sound of lamentations. He went out to find a crowd beside Juan’s hut. He rushed to find that Juan’s son had fallen ill. He found that the village doctor was unable to provide a cure to his illness. Tuan knew what he had to do. He untied his own horse and rode it. Then he rushed to the town that was ten miles away and fetched a more experienced doctor who lived there.

This doctor was able to guess the disease correctly and provided an exact cure for it. Within hours, the boy was found to sleep soundly and Tuan went with the doctor to take him back to the town.

A day later, Juan went to Tuan’s hut and began to weep bitterly. He confessed to his sins but was surprised when Tuan told him that he knew about it all.

“You knew that I had set fire to your crops? And still you fetched the doctor for my son?” asked the astonished Juan.

Tuan nodded and said, “I did what I knew was right. Could I do wrong just because you had done so?”

Juan stood up and embraced Tuan. Both men were in tears and so were the others who stood by them.

From that day, Juan changed himself. Within a year, he could produce much crops in his land through his hard work. When the others asked him how he had changed so much, he only replied,

“It was the goodness and love of Tuan that transformed me.”

Moral of the story

The moral of the story is that, for success in life, hard work and helping others is very important. Tuan was a hard worker and went out of the way to help others. Even then he was not able to please everyone.

Juan was lazy and jealous which made him unsuccessful. People like Juan may cause harm to others. But these are temporary setbacks to  people like Tuan. They keep a positive approach towards life and don’t stop their good work. Tuan continues doing the hard work and even though he knew it was Juan who had set his farm on fire, never had an animosity towards him. Tuan rendered a helping hand when Juan was in distress.

Tuan’s effort changed Juan and he confessed to his deeds and asked for forgiveness.  Tuan forgiveness was in the words “I did what I knew was right. Could I do wrong just because you had done so?” . Thus from this story One can learn that hard work , helping nature and a mind to forgive others can bring about success in life