This is one of the fairy tales online for kids which has been adapted from a tale in Japan. Once upon a time, there lived two brothers. These two brothers lived with their mother a little further away from the city nearby.

Now, one of them was a hard worker. This brother worked hard and did not waste his time being lazy. Whereas, the other brother, was lazy and did not work at all. This brother preferred to sleep in his bed all day long and eat whatever the hard-working brother earned. Also, read Hare And Tortoise Story.

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Their mother had been sick, and the family had always been poor. The hard-working brother’s earnings were always spent by the lazy brother. Every day, the hard-working brother went to the town with his lunch and came back in the evening. During his lunch break, the hard-working brother would go to a river and have his lunch by the river.

One day, the hard-working brother tells his brother that he is going to the town. “I will be back by tonight. There are some sticks I have gathered. I will sell them and make money,” he says and leaves. But as luck would have it, he could not sell even a single stick.

The poor brother was upset that he could not even sell one of the sticks. And he could not go home without any money. So, he went to the river and started weeping. When he was weeping, the hard-working brother heard a voice. “Why are you crying?” asked a voice. The hard-working brother looked around wondering where the voice was coming from. You may also like to read, A Foolish Tortoise.

Then the voice asked him to look down. When the hard-working brother did so, he looked at the turtle. “I would like to help you,” said the turtle. “Although I can sing, I can’t sing that well. But it should be enough to earn some money.” The hard-working brother was confused and wondered why would the turtle help him. “I have been eating the crumbs you leave behind after your lunch. I am indebted to you.”

So, the hard-working brother took the turtle to the market and earned a handsome amount. He took his earnings and the turtle to his house. The hard-working brother narrated the entire story to his family. Next day, when the brother was washing up the turtle, the lazy brother snatched the turtle and said, “I can earn more than you can!”

With that, the lazy brother took the turtle to the market. The lazy brother ordered and ordered the turtle to sing. But that only made the turtle go back into his shell. The townspeople blamed the man for lying to them and said that it was an ordinary turtle anyway.

The turtle made his way back to the hut on its own. Once home, the turtle told everything to the hard-working brother. Upon hearing the story, their mother told them, “Bad habits chase away the good things in life.” Also, read The Tortoise And The Eagle.