4 ideas
A stream reaches a desert and keeps failing to cross by rushing into the sand, until a voice tells it to let the wind absorb it as vapor and carry it over to fall as rain beyond. The stream fears losing its identity, but its essential nature survives only by giving up its current form. Transformation sometimes requires surrendering the shape you think you are, not pushing harder in that shape.
Khidr warns a man that all the water will be replaced by water that drives people mad, so he stores clean water. After the change everyone drinks, goes mad, and treats him as the insane one. Isolated and miserable, he finally drinks the new water and is welcomed back as having regained his sanity. Sanity is judged by conformity to the group, and holding a correct perception alone carries a social cost that can become unbearable.
A horseman sees a snake crawl into a sleeping man's mouth. With no time to explain, he beats the man, forces him to eat rotten apples and run until he vomits up the snake. Only then does the man understand that the apparent assault saved him. Effective help may look hostile when the helper can see what the helped cannot, and explaining first can make the rescue impossible.
Shah presents the tales as tools meant to work on the reader's perception over repeated encounters rather than as morals to decode once. Each story holds several layers, and which layer a reader sees depends on their current capacity.