One day, groups of birds were flying in search of food. They were being led by their king. They flew the whole day long, but could get nothing to eat. In the evening, they king divided the birds into four groups and asked them to go in four different directions and look for food grains.
The birds flew in different directions and started looking for food. They all got tit bits to eat. They also saved some for the king. One of the birds got separated from her group and she flew a little further. She reached a tree which on a freeway. She saw cartloads of food grains passing on the road. One of the bags of the grain was torn and grains were enough grains on the road for the entire group. She thought of flying back and telling the king about what she had found. But on a second thought, she decided not to tell the king. “If I tell him he will come here with all the birds. I want all this grain for myself”. She thought. She had fill of the grains and took some for the king.
The king was pleased, as the grains were superb. He asked her where she got the grains. She told him the truth about the freeway. Hearing her, all the birds were happy. The king told them that next day, they could all go to the freeway and collect the grains.
But the bird said, “It is very dangerous to collect food from there. The road is very busy. Carts and vehicles pass over it every moment. We may get crushed under the wheels of the cart. I risked my life to get these grains. It will be better that we don’t go there”.
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The king liked her sound advice and decided to look for food elsewhere.
However, the little bird flew to the freeway every day and had her fill of grains. On her way back, she would collect some food for the king and come back to her nest. One day, in her eagerness to eat more grains, she got crushed under the wheels of a cart.
Evening arrived and she did not return to her nest. All the birds got worried about her. They reported the matter to the king. The king told them to go and search for her. He also went out to look for her. Soon, he came upon the freeway and found her body lying in the middle of the road. He could understand the reason for her death. He understands her greedy and selfish nature. She had advised others not to go to the freeway so that she could eat all the grain herself. However, she became a victim of her greed and selfishness.