International Folk Tales: Why Wisdom is Everywhere

Once upon a time, the sky god named Nyame gave Anansi the spider an unusual gift. It was a pot which had in it all the wisdom in the world. Nyame also instructed Anansi to share the gift of wisdom with everyone in the world.

The pot was filled with amazing skills and ideas. Anansi looked into the pot and learnt something new every day.He was extremely selfish and greedy by nature and hated sharing anything with anyone. He thought, “I want to keep all the wisdom in the pot just for me. I will hide it somewhere and not share it with anyone.”

One day, Anansi was looking for a place where he could hide his pot of wisdom. Finally, he decided to hide it at the topmost branch of a very tall tree. He made a strong rope using the vines from the tree. He then used the rope to tie the pot with his body. Anansi placed the pot in front of his stomach and tied it firmly using the rope.

He started climbing the tree very slowly but was facing a lot of difficulty. The pot was hanging against his stomach and kept bumping against the tree, hurting him in the process. The young son of Anansi was watching him from the bottom of the tree.

After a while, his son suggested, “Father,why don’t you tie the pot at your back? That way it will not bump against the tree and it will be easier and more comfortable for you to climb up the tree by holding it with your hands.”

Anansi followed his son’s suggestion and found out that it was indeed easier to climb the tree this way. Within no time, he reached the top of the tree. But Anansi was extremely angry. “What is the use of owning the pot of wisdom when even a young boy has more common sense than I do?” Anansi thought and dropped the pot of wisdom from the top of the tree.

The pot fell to the ground and broke into pieces. The gift of wisdom stored inside the pot started flying in different directions. People of the world found the bits and pieces of wisdom scattered everywhere.  And they started picking up some for their friends and families.

Thus until this day, no one person has all the wisdom in the world. And all over the world,  people share wisdom by exchanging ideas with one another.

For more interesting Indian Folk Tales for kids, go to: Indian Folk Tales

For other interesting stories for kids, browse though our huge collection of short stories here: Stories for Kids