The Pigeon and the Crow?

Once there lived a rich man. He was very kind and generous man. He gave away a part of his income in charity. He showed special kindness to the animals and birds. One day, a pigeon entered his kitchen and built her nest in an empty vegetable basket. Being kind hearted, the merchant told the cook to let the pigeon stay in his kitchen. The cook gave her grains and other things to eat. The pigeon thus had a home.

A crow was once passing by the merchant’s house. He saw the pigeon comfortably sitting in her nest in the kitchen. He could also smell the delicious food that the cook was cooking. He smelt the cheese and the fish curry. He was very greedy. He wanted to eat the tasty food. He made up his mind to find an entrance to the kitchen.

Next day, when the pigeon came out of the kitchen, the crow approached her and befriended her. At first, the pigeon did not want to make friendship with the crow.

However, when the crow told her that he was very jointly, as his friends had gone away to another city, she felt sorry for him and made him her friend. The crow made it a practice to accompany the pigeon whatever she went.

One day, he requests her to show him her nest. The pigeon took him to the kitchen of the wealthy merchant. “The cook here is very kind. He often gives me tasty food to eat”. She told him. Just then, the cook came to the kitchen and saw the crow. He was about to drive him away when he thought of his master’s kindness towards the birds.

Therefore, he let the crow stay in the kitchen. He hung another basket for him. The crow had wished this to happen. Thus, he also started living in the kitchen.

However, unlike pigeon, he stole food in the absence of the cook. One day, the merchant had invited some guests. He came to the kitchen and instructed his cook to make tasty fish curry for the guests. The crow was happy to hear this. That day, he did not go out of the kitchen. He watched the activities of the cook. The cook took out a large fish out of the refrigerator. He cut in into pieces. Then he fried the pieces and mixed spices to make a tasty curry. The crow could hardly wait to taste the curry. The cook poured the curry into a bowl and went out to fetch some vegetables from the garden. Here was the crow’s chance to taste the curry. He stealthily went near the bowl of fish and removed the plate that covered it. The plate fell with a big bang. The cook rushed into the kitchen and caught the crow red handed. He had a large piece of fish in his beak.

The cook was very angry with the crow. He said, “I let you stay in my kitchen. I gave you tasty food to eat. And now you are stealing food. You are an ungrateful creature. I must punish you”. So saying, he plucked out all his feathers and threw the featherless crow into crow met a dreadful end.

In the evening, the pigeon returned to her nest. She saw the dead featherless crow lying in the dustbin. She understood what might have happened to the crow. She also understood why he had not gone out the kitchen with her that day. She said aloud, “one should never be greedy. Greed leads to nothing, but downfall. This crow was not satisfied with what the kind cook gave him. He tried to steal fish and met with a dreadful end”.