Jataka Tales – The Greedy Crow

Once upon a time in a kingdom, the people were very kind. They would build small houses for birds with food in them so that the birds could eat and rest there well. The birds would not disturb the humans and neither would the humans disturb the birds. One such person was one of the noblemen who lived there. He built a house for a pigeon. The pigeon would daily fly at dawn and roam the skies. At dusk, he would return to his home in the nobleman’s palace.

One day, a crow came flying by and he caught the various smells of various foods coming from the kitchen in the nobleman’s palace. He hatched a plan and waited for the pigeon in a tree nearby. Next day morning, the crow went to fly along with the pigeon and expressed his intent on staying with the pigeon. The pigeon was however well aware of the intentions of the crow and decided to warn him in advance. The crow waved off his objections and the pigeon nevertheless agreed for him to stay in his house in the nobleman’s palace.

The next morning, the crow said that he would be unable to join the pigeon in his flying as he was unwell and said that he would instead prefer to stay back. The pigeon told him to rest and flew away. This was an obvious act played by the crow and once the pigeon was no longer in sight, he flew towards the kitchen and sat on the windowsill. As the cook was still inside, he waited for him to go out. Once the cook went out, the crow flew into the kitchen through the open window and hopped towards the vessel with food. But in his eagerness, he pushed a porcelain bowl down and it broke with a loud shattering sound. The cook rushed in and saw the crow inside trying to steal the food. The crow tried to fly away but the cook caught his wings and ripping his feathers apart, he threw him outside the window, onto the ground. The greed of the crow, resulted in nothing but misery for him.

Moral – One must always be happy with what they have and not be greedy for something that is beyond their reach.