The ministry of higher and secondary special education of the republic of uzbekistan

 
THE KING AND THE CRITIC 
 
The king used to write stories which he thought were very good. The people to whom 
he showed them were afraid to criticize them. They said that his stories were good. One 
day he showed some of his stories to a well known critic who said that his stories were 
bad. The king got angry with him and sent him to prison. After some time the king 
pardoned the critic. When he returned he invited him to his palace for dinner. Again he 
showed him some of his stories and again asked him what he thought of them. The critic
turned to the guards who were standing behind him and said: “Take me back to the 
prison”. 
A WISE JUDGE 
 
Once there lived two brothers. They worked together on their father’s farm. They were 
very friendly. One day their father died and left his property to his two sons. Before he 
died he told them to divide the property between them. But the brothers could not agree 
how to divide it. Each wanted to have the better part for himself. For some time they did 
not speak to each other. At last they went to a judge who was very wise and always knew 
how to settle such difficult matters. The judge listened to them attentively and then said: 

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“The matter is very simple. We shall divide the property in this way. One of you will have 
the right to choose which of the two parts he prefers.” In this way the matter was settled. 
A BROKEN VASE 
 
A young man was going to marry a beautiful girl. One day the girl said to him that the 
next day she would celebrate her birthday and invited him to her birthday party. The
young man was eager to take her a present, so he went to a gift shop. There he saw many 
beautiful things. Of all the things he particularly liked the vases. But they were very 
expensive, and as he had very little money he had to leave the shop without buying 
anything.
Making for the door he suddenly heard a noise: one of the vases fell on the floor and 
broke to pieces. A brilliant idea came to his mind. He came up to the counter and asked the 
salesman to wrap up the broken vase. The salesman got a little surprised but did what the 
young man had asked him to. The young man, feeling very happy, took the parcel and 
went straight to the girl’s place.
By the time he entered the room the guests had already gathered. Everybody was 
enjoying the party. Some of the people were dancing, others were talking, joking and 
laughing. Saying “Many happy returns of the day ”, the young man told the girl that he 
had bought a small present for her. With these words he began to unwrap the parcel. 
Suddenly he got pale and said: “I am afraid, I have broken it. There were so many people 
in the bus…” But when he unwrapped the parcel, he saw that the salesman had wrapped 
up each piece of the vase separately.