| Once upon a time, in the glorious land of Laos, the land of million Elephants, there lived a little boy by the name of Mansay. He had no parents and was lame in one leg. But Mansay was a very happy child, who was well looked after by the villagers |
 Betty (Villager) | Hello Mansay! I’ve brought you fresh vegetables from my garden!! Oh! Leah! |
 Leah (Villager): | Hump! Vegetables! I’ve brought him something better! |
| Betty (Villager) | A sugary sweet pie?? That’ll rot all his teeth! |
 Mansay: | Hahaha! |
| The village children would always play with him but in one particular game, he was the best. |
 James (Friend of Mansay) | Wow!! How’d you hit that tree??? |
| Oliver (Friend of Mansay): | That’s Mansay for you! He can aim at anything, no matter HOW far it is. |
| Mansay: | Haha… well … |
| The truth was, Mansay would spend a lot of time, practicing flicking pebbles at far away objects. He could even hit at leaves in the topmost parts of tall trees. One day he was sitting alone under a large banyan tree and he started flicking pebbles at the leaves. |
| Mansay | Oh Wow!! |
| The sunlight that came through the leaf made an image on the ground. |
| Mansay: | It looks like a boy dancing hahaha! |
| And so it did. When the leaves fluttered and the sun rays moved with them, the image on the ground would move beautifully. As his friends came to find him they were delighted with the show. |
 Ava (Friend of Mansay): | OOOH! What is this!! It’s beautiful! |
| Mansay | Let’s make something else, eh? HAH!! HU! YEAH! |
| Soon he had created an elephant on one leaf, and then a baby elephant. |
| Ava (Friend of Mansay): | WOW! It looks like a baby elephant following its mommy! |
| The children were enjoying the show and almost didn’t see the King and his soldiers approaching in that way. But they turned as they heard the sounds. |
| James (Friend of Mansay): | Oh no! The King! Quick! Let’s hide!! |
| Oliver (Friend of Mansay): | Come on Mansay! |
| The kids hid behind the bushes and the King and his troops soon came over to rest. But as soon as the wind blew and moved the leaves around, the elephants showed up near the King and surprised him. |
 The King: | OOH! What’s this?? |
 Guard: | It… It looks like magic! |
| The King: | It’s BEAUTIFUL!! Guards! Find the person who has created this art. |
| Oliver (Friend of Mansay): | Oh no! They’ll come to find us! |
| James (Friend of Mansay): | Run RUN!! |
| Mansay: | Wait! Wait for me!! |
| But the children ran away leaving Mansay behind. Even though the King was a good man, to little children he was still someone great and fearsome. |
| Guard: | I’ve found the boy here! Let’s bring him to the King. |
| And so, poor scared Mansay was brought before the King, trembling. |
| The King: | It is you who made these images? |
| Mansay: | Ye… yes, your Highness. |
| The King: | Hmmm. Prove it Make another one for us. |
| Mansay picked a pebble but just then, a songbird perched itself on a branch. Seeing it, Mansay had an idea. He flicked the pebbles at one broken leaf and formed the image of the Bird’s body. On another leaf he created the Bird’s head. And when the leaves moved, everyone watched in amazement. |
| The King: | Amazing!! It looks like the bird is singing the song. |
| The King and his men enjoyed and clapped to the song of the sunlit bird. |
| The King: | My boy, you have a Remarkable talent….I would like to bring you back to my castle. You would be able to help me a great deal. |
| And so Mansay sat in the very Carriage as the King and rode all the way to the Royal Palace. There Mansay was impressed at being inside. |
| The King: | Now, listen carefully to what I have to say. I will soon be holding a meeting with my ministers. One of which doesn’t stop talking. |
| Mansay: | Oh? |
| The King: | I mean, the man just keeps on with his blah blah blah. I want to teach him how to listen to others too. |
| Mansay: | So… how can I help? |
| The King: | You must hide between the curtains and shoot bitter orange peels into his mouth |
| Mansay was very amused and agreed to the King’s plan. He sat behind a curtain, opposite to the Minister, Eric’s side. Soon the meeting started. |
| Mansay: | Oh no! I didn’t ask the King which Minister it is |
| The King: | Now then, I’ve called you all to discuss the thefts in the kingdom. Does anyone have anything to say about it? |
 Robert (Minister): | Well, Sire, I was wondering |
 Eric (Minister): | I was thinking maybe we should just ask the victims. I do know that some of them saw the Thief at some points. |
| Robert (Minister): | That’s amazing! Then we can |
| Eric (Minister): | But I do feel it will take some time to find a man. After all, it is a huge Kingdom. And we do have such NICE people |
| John (Minister): | Eric, I think he wants to say something |
| Eric (Minister): | But we Do have many soldiers in the Kingdom. It may not take as much time as I feaar. |
| The King: | Ugh…. |
| Mansay: | So THAT’S the man!! Well, time to take a break Mr. Talkative. |
| He shot the peel straight into Eric’s mouth who was very surprised but soon turned pale. |
| The King: | What’s wrong Eric? Is everything fine? |
| Eric (Minister): | mmm! Mhm! Hummumm. What’s this dreadful thing in my mouth?? Eww!! Pfft! Pfft! Poot! |
| Robert (Minister): | Eww! |
| John (Minister): | Eric! You’re in front of the King! |
| The King: | Hmhmm he he Hmgf! It’s alright. Well? What were YOU going to say..? |
| Robert (Minister): | Well you Highness |
| Eric (Minister): | Ugh! I was SAYING that the people of this… PFFT! There may be a Thief in the midst of our people. I mean we can never be TOO SURE. |
| Mansay: | Hehehe..! |
| The King: | Oh, dear! I guess Eric’s little tongue-tied this time. |
| Robert (Minister): | Thank goodness. Well your highness if you’ll hear me out |
| Eric (Minister): | I’m sorry for that but I only wanted to say that—Hmpt??! Why’s this happening?? Every time I open my mouth, something horrible drops in! |
| And so this time, he swallowed the peel and decided to stay quiet for fear of something else being shot into his mouth. |
| Robert (Minister): | Well? Should I speak now?? |
| Eric (Minister): | Mhm! |
| Robert (Minister): | Finally! Your Majesty. What I wanted to say was that there’s a traveling Circus Caravan in our Kingdom. And at every stop it makes, a nearby house is always robbed. |
| The King: | That is rather interesting. So do you want to visit the next place it stops? |
| Robert (Minister): | Exactly your majesty! |
| John (Minister): | That is a very good idea! |
| The King: | What do you think Eric? |
| Eric was quite impressed with the idea. |
| Eric (Minister): | I—uhmm.. |
| The King: | Yes…? Go on. |
| Eric (Minister): | …… well, I … quite agree with… what he said. |
| The King: | Excellent! It really is nice to hear MANY DIFFERENT opinions, isn’t it?? |
| Eric (Minister): | oh! Uhhh… yes, it is. |
| In this way whenever Eric spoke too much, Mansay would shoot a peel into his mouth. So Eric remained quiet for the whole time and had no other choice but to listen to the others. |
| Eric (Minister): | Hmm…. I can’t remember ever having heard their opinions before. |
| Robert (Minister): | Do I really talk that much? |
| After the meeting was over the King came up to Eric. |
| The King: | Well? Now, do you realize that giving others a chance to speak and voice their opinions is an important thing?? |
| Eric (Minister): | Yes. I am sorry for the way I’ve behaved. I’ll try hard to change from now on. |
| Mansay: | Mission accomplished! |
| The King was very pleased with Mansay and allowed him to stay in the Palace. He was well fed and looked after and lived a happy life, displaying his talent to others. And as for Eric? Well, he was true to this word and tried hard to allow others the chance to speak. Because listening to other’s opinions is a very important thing. We must always care and value other people’s thoughts too. |
