3 ideas
A son boasts of a hundred friends, so his father has him carry a slaughtered calf in a sack to each door at night, claiming it is a man he has killed and asking for help burying it. Every one of the son's friends refuses, while the father's single 'half friend' takes the sack in without question. Friendship is measured only by what someone will risk when you appear to be in disgrace, not by how many people welcome you in good times.
A peasant catches a small bird, which buys its freedom with three precepts: do not believe everything you are told, do not grieve over what you cannot recover, and do not reach for what cannot be had. Once free, the bird claims it carried a huge precious stone in its belly. The peasant despairs, and so breaks all three precepts within moments of hearing them. Knowing wise maxims is worthless unless you apply them in the moment they are tested.
Bare precepts are hard and tedious for the mind to retain, so moral teaching should be wrapped in tales, fables and sayings that please the listener. The pleasure of the story carries the lesson into memory. The son's repeated requests to hear 'more' show that narrative draws the learner forward rather than forcing instruction on him.