The Crow and the Birds at the Feast
Once upon a time, on the edge of an ancient forest where cool waters ran, there lay a magnificent valley in which birds of every colour gathered. While the mild autumn wind set the golden leaves of the trees dancing, the dwellers of the forest had embarked upon the preparation of a great feast. Sweet fruits, savoury seeds and freshly gathered berries had been arranged with care upon a long wooden table. The nightingales were singing their finest songs, and the wrens were welcoming the guests with a joyful beating of their wings. While all the birds hoped to spend this elegant banquet in friendship, a cunning crow appeared from behind the bushes. When the crow saw the delicious offerings on the table, his eyes gleamed with greed and he alighted at once in the midst of the gathering. “It would hardly be right for you to clear away such a delectable table on your own,” he said, clearing his throat with an air of arrogance.
The wise owl of the forest stepped forward, greeted the crow courteously and invited him to the table. But the crow did not content himself with being a guest; he began to heap the largest and tastiest morsels in front of himself. While the other birds looked at one another in astonishment, the proud crow went on with his boastful speech. “When there is a bird as lofty and as wise as I, the sweetest fruits belong to me, of course,” he said. What is more, as he bolted down the food on the table, he did not shrink from coveting the shares of the other birds as well. The sparrows and the doves, exceedingly vexed by this greedy conduct of the crow, began to grumble. As this tension among the birds grew, the crow lunged forward to snatch the most precious golden fig on the table.
Just as he was about to swallow the fig, his excessive greed made him lose his balance and he tumbled into the great water bowl standing on the table. His soaked feathers weighing him down, the crow cut a ridiculous figure and began to flounder, and all the food on the table was scattered about. The other birds pulled the crow out of the water together, but they watched his shameful state with a smile. Ashamed of the injustice and the greed he had shown, the crow smoothed his wings and was obliged to leave the valley in silence. The birds, for their part, set their table in order once more and carried on with their feast in joy and in fairness. Those who covet what belongs to others and are never satisfied lose even what they hold and are condemned to solitude. Grasp all, lose all.