Good day to you all steemians. I am happy to participate in this contest about childhood stories. It's taking me back to memory lane. 10% payout to @steemkidss community.

When I was a child, I heard, watched and read a lot of stories. Some had songs as part of the story. I can't remember them all, but this one readily came up to my mind.

Title: Abu And The Leopard

Leopard
Source

Once upon a time, there lived a boy called Abu. He lived in a small village surrounded by rocks and long grasses. He loves to climb the rocks to play. One day, he decided to seek for attention.

Do you know what he did? Let me tell you. He started shouting Leopard! Leopard! Leopard!.

They men of the village all came rushing to rescue him and to kill the leopard. When the got where Abu was the asked him where he saw the Leopard. He pointed to the rocks and long grasses. They searched for the Leopard half of the day but couldn't find it. When the came back to Abu to really verify if he had truly seen a Leopard, he apologized to them for playing a prank on them.

His parents were very angry with him and warned him never to do such a thing. He promised not do it again.

Few days after the incident, he went back to the rocks again to play. Due to his mischievous character he decided to prank them again. He shouted again Leopard! Leopard! Leopard.

They villagers once again responded with their den guns and machetes to track and kill the the Leopard. The reason for their response this time was that, there were a lot of little children from the village who go out to play "hide and seek" around the rocks and bushes. And secondly, you know that no parent will be happy seeing his child been devoured by a wild animal.

Not seeing the wild animal, Abu admitted that it was a prank. A second time? As good parents, Abu's parents disciplined him and he promised again never to do so.

Days went by, weeks too and the incident was forgotten. But Abu still had one more Leopard prank to play. He again went to the rocks to play. As he was playing, a cold rustling breeze blew across the long grasses. He heard something, he saw something. The Leopard was now there. So he started shouting again. Leopard! Leopard! Leopard!.

They villagers heard the shouting. Some wanted to respond but others felt that he was pranking them again. So nobody responded.

Later in the evening Abu's parents started looking for him everywhere because he had not come back home. Seeing that he was missing, everyone joined in the search. When they got to the rock the place he usually goes to play. They found him dead been killed not by his "imaginary" Leopard but by a real voracious wild Leopard.

Moral Lessons

• Lying is bad in any form. Admittedly, not all pranks are bad in itself, but very expensive pranks should be avoided because you may never know the health condition of the person or people you are pranking. He/she may die of high blood pressure depending on the degree of the prank. If one lies regularly, no one will believe you even when you are telling the truth.

• Children should always listen to their parents. And accept their discipline. Even the Bible urge children to "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that Jehovah your God is giving you." Exodus 20: 12.

• We should not be attention seekers. Drawing to much attention to ourselves may make us to be egotistic and proud.

• Parents should be aware of their children's bad personalities. And discipline them when required. Secondly, they should spend time with their children.

• Parent should know and monitor the movements and whereabout of their children. So as to keep them safe from crime and from pedophiles.

How I Heard The Story

During the 80s and up to the 90s, there used to be a children's program called "Tales By Moonlight" if I remembered clearly it used to be aired around 6pm on Sundays. I couldn't miss it for anything in the world then. So this story was told as one of the tales.

Age I Heard The Story

Probably by age seven or eight. Well, it was in between 7-10 years. Not more than that.

Me at age 4

Conclusion

Childhood is the most important part of our existence, the memories are to be treasured for life. Childhood stories make up the best part of that experience. Nowadays, the world has changed so much that you rarely see/read or watch
this stories.

It has been replaced by violent and degrading video games and comics. No moral lessons are learnt in those comic. No wonder, the modern generation have no moral values. They only think of self-gratification. What a change from the good old day!

Parent! Parents! You NOW have a greater role in training your kids and been part of their lives. One way to do so is to tell them good childhood stories with great moral lessons. I invite @beautybb, @misterfab and @marajah(59)Thank you.

Special mention:

@stephenkendal
@bright-obias
@whitestallion
@focusnow
@kiwiscanfly
@yohan2on