Once upon a time, there lived a man called Kabir in India. As he was walking one day in town, he coughed up a feather. He reached out and caught the feather and found that it belonged to a crane but still did not know how it came from inside him.
He then took the feather and gave it to his wife, Asha. She saw the crane’s feather and was extremely delighted. When she asked Kabir as to how he got it, he narrated to her about what had happened. He also told her specifically not to tell this to anyone as people would think he was mad. The wife nodded in agreement and Kabir went to town again.
Some time later, Asha’s friend came to visit Asha from the market. While they were speaking, she noticed the feather that Asha had near her and asked her where she got it from. Asha then told her that she would tell her provided she would not disclose it to anyone. She nodded and then Asha said that her husband Kabir had coughed it up and given it to her. The friend marvelled at this and bidding goodbye, she proceeded to her home.
On the way, unable to control her excitement, she met a fruit seller and told her about Kabir having coughed up a bunch of crane feathers. As soon as Asha’s friend had left, the fruit seller wasted no time in spreading this information to others. Soon the entire town was buzzing with this development. By now the entire town thought Kabir had coughed up an entire crane and some even thought he coughed up an entire flock of birds.
A group of people then approached Kabir who was returning home and stopped him. They asked him to give them some birds by coughing it up from his throat. Kabir at once knew what had happened and he immediately got an idea to tackle this problem. He said that once he coughed up the birds, each one had to keep a bird in their tummy so that the bird would survive. All the people were flabbergasted at this suggestion and after murmuring something among themselves, they disappeared in various directions. Kabir then continued his walk back home happily.
Moral - Never believe rumours without any facts.