THE MAGICAL CANVAS

Once upon a time there was a boy named Joy. Joy noticed his parents read newspaper everyday. He asked his mother about it. “A newspaper is very important thing, Joy. It tells one about the events happening in the whole world.” His mother told him. “You should also make it a habit to go through the newspaper everyday.” Joy did accordingly. Everyday, he read the newspaper. He even started to cut the most interesting news and made a news album. His knowledge about the world around him increased. His parents were very happy. Someone else was happy too –
The Blue Fairy.
The Blue Fairy decided to reward Joy. She came in Joy’s dreams that night and said, “Joy! It is very important to be abreast of current events. I am happy to see that you are increasing your knowledge by reading newspaper daily. So I reward you with a magical Canvas. This canvas can paint any picture you ask for, so realistically that the picture will look like the real thing!! But remember, you can use it only thrice. Enjoy!!”
When Joy found the magical canvas under his pillow next morning, he was very pleased. He took it immediately to Sid’s house. On the contrary, Sid was very gloomy.
“What’s the matter?” asked Joy.
“I want to draw a picture of a dinosaur for my science project, but no one really knows how real dinosaurs looked like. All that the scientists have is their skeleton. The dinosaurs are all extinct now. How can I draw a real dinosaur if I don’t know how it looked like!!” replied Sid.
“I can help you” Joy told him, and asked the canvas to draw a picture of Tyrannosaurus-Rex, the fiercest of all dinosaurs. The picture was so real that the friends got scared for a moment!! Happily, Sid drew a similar picture for his science project. Then the friends went to Joy’s home to play with Ginni, the younger sister.
But Ginni was in no mood to play!! She was howling and wailing loudly. Mom had just scolded her for eating with dirty hands. Sid had an idea. He asked the magical canvas to paint a magnified picture of their hands. Then Ginni and they all could see the minute disease causing germs in the hands. Quickly they washed their hands with soap, and decided to do so every time they come from outside.
Even before they could eat something, the doorbell rang. When Mom opened the door, a sturdy man barged inside. He had a gun!! He was a robber. “Hand over all your money and jewelry to me” he yelled at Mom. Terrified, Mom started doing as he said.
Meanwhile, Joy asked the magical canvas to paint a picture of a treasure. Then he hung the picture over an open window of their third floor home, and covered it with a curtain.
“Thief Sir”, he said, gathering as much courage as he could, “You take whatever Mom is giving you, but please don’t take the treasure hidden behind that curtain, otherwise my Papa will get very angry!”
Greedy as he was, the foolish thief opened the curtain. He couldn’t believe what he saw. In front of him was a huge collection of gold, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. There was plenty of money too. “Wow!! I’ll be rich!” shouted the thief in glee, and jumped on to the canvas. The canvas tore on the impact, and the thief came crashing down from the third floor with a huge THUD. He had to live in hospital for many weeks, and then in the prison. The children thanked the magical canvas, which disappeared right away!