The Treacherous Stork
Once upon a time, at the edge of an ancient forest where cool waters flowed merrily and mighty oaks reached toward the sky, there was a stork's nest. In this lofty nest lived a faithful long-legged stork together with his graceful but deceitful wife. Whenever the male stork beat his wings toward distant lands to seek food, the female stork secretly met a strange bird. And when the hour of her husband's return drew near, she would go to the clear stream and bathe, washing away the smell of wickedness with the water. Thanks to this cunning game she kept up for years, she managed to deceive her faithful husband and to appear innocent. On a hot summer day, the female stork returned once more from her secret meeting and took the road to the stream to bathe.
But that day fortune turned its face away from her, and the bed of the babbling stream had filled with mud and dried up. In her alarm the female stork did not know what to do, and although she ran toward the other springs, she realized that time had run out. When the male stork glided down into the nest, he at once sensed the strange smell on his wife and her unease, and he cried out in anger. "You have betrayed this sacred nest and carried on dark deeds behind my back!" he shouted. Though the female stork tried to plead with a trembling voice, the lies she told were no longer of any use. "I was only resting by the edge of the stream, I swear that I have no guilt!" she said, trying to deceive her husband.
The male stork, who understood the lie at once, spread his wings to the wind and called the storks from the four corners of the sky to his aid. In a short time a flock of storks covered the sky and gathered around the high roof to hold a court of justice. The wise leader of the flock instantly recognized the smell of betrayal and the deceitful behaviour that the female stork was trying to hide. All the birds condemned this treachery with one voice, and the storks fell upon the female stork with hard blows of their beaks. Helpless before the sharp light of the truth, the treacherous stork was forced to flee from there in great regret. She could never return to that nest again and was condemned to live all alone in the dark cold of loneliness. Every hidden trick comes to light one day, and straying from honesty drags a person into loneliness. Lies have short legs.