Far beyond the tallest mountains, where the clouds floated like giant cotton balls, there was a tiny kingdom called Sprinkle Valley.

In Sprinkle Valley lived a little green dragon named Milo.

Milo was not like the other dragons.

He could not fly very high.

He could not breathe enormous flames.

And he certainly could not roar loudly enough to shake the mountains.

But Milo had one special talent.

He could make the most delicious rainbow cookies in the entire kingdom.

Every morning, Milo would sit beside his grandmother’s old stone oven and bake cookies shaped like stars, moons, flowers, and tiny dragons.

The cookies were colorful, crunchy around the edges, and soft in the middle.

Everyone loved them.

One morning, Milo baked a gigantic batch.

“There are enough cookies for everyone!” Grandma Dragon said.

Milo looked at the mountain of cookies.

He imagined eating them all himself.

“Maybe I should keep them,” he thought.

He quickly placed the cookies into a giant wooden box.

When his friends arrived, Milo sat on top of the box.

“Can we have some cookies?” asked Bella the bunny.

“No,” Milo replied.

“Just one?” asked Pip the penguin.

“No.”

“Perhaps two?” asked Toby the turtle.

“Absolutely not!”

His friends looked disappointed and walked away.

Milo smiled.

Now all the cookies were his.

He opened the box and ate one.

“Delicious!”

He ate another.

“Wonderful!”

Then another.

Soon Milo had eaten ten cookies.

His stomach began to feel funny.

He ate one more.

Then another.

Suddenly—

“ACHOO!”

Milo sneezed so hard that cookie crumbs flew everywhere.

He looked at his giant box.

There were still hundreds of cookies.

But somehow, they didn’t seem as exciting anymore.

Milo went outside.

He saw Bella, Pip, and Toby sitting beneath a tree.

They were sharing three tiny apples.

Bella gave one slice to Pip.

Pip gave one slice to Toby.

Toby gave the last slice back to Bella.

They were laughing.

Milo felt strange.

They had almost nothing, but they looked happier than he did.

Milo walked over slowly.

“Why are you sharing those apples?”

Bella smiled.

“Because food tastes better when everyone gets some.”

Milo looked down.

“I have hundreds of cookies.”

“That’s wonderful!” said Toby.

“But I don’t feel happy.”

Pip tilted his head.

“Maybe because you are eating them alone.”

Milo thought about it.

He suddenly understood.

He had believed that having everything would make him happy.

But happiness was not something he could keep inside a wooden box.

Milo ran home.

He opened the cookie box and carried it outside.

“I was selfish,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

His friends smiled.

“Does this mean we can have a cookie?”

Milo laughed.

“It means you can have as many as you want!”

Soon, the entire valley gathered around Milo’s garden.

They ate rainbow cookies, told funny stories, danced beneath the stars, and played games until sunset.

Milo even saved the biggest dragon-shaped cookie for Grandma.

That evening, Milo sat beside the empty cookie box.

Grandma smiled.

“How do you feel?”

Milo smiled back.

“Much happier.”

“Why?”

“Because the cookies were mine when I kept them. But the happiness became ours when I shared them.”

From that day forward, Milo never baked cookies just for himself.

And whenever someone asked him why he always shared his treats, he would proudly say:

“Some things become smaller when you share them. Happiness becomes bigger.”

Moral

Sharing doesn’t make what you have smaller. It makes happiness bigger.