Never trust anyone blindly
Once upon a time, there was a huge neem tree in the forest. An old, blind vulture made his home on the tree. Many birds also built their nests on the tree. Being old and blind, the vulture would struggle to find food. The other birds took pity on the vulture and would feed him their leftover scraps. The blind vulture was so overwhelmed with gratitude that he thought to himself, "All these birds are so kind to me; it is my duty to protect their babies when the birds go out to fetch food."
Thus the vulture would hang around the young fledglings while the birds were out and provide comfort and a sense of safety to the babies. They were all happy with this equation and many years passed by.
One day a cat was passing by the tree and heard the chirping sounds of the young birds. He was thrilled to have found a place where he could have a good meal every day. With these thoughts, the cat climbed up the tree. The fledglings began to chirp with fear and this alerted the vulture. The blind vulture noticed their anxiety and shouted at once, "Who is there?" The vulture came out and started looking for the intruder.
The cat, who was standing right in front of the vulture, noticed that the vulture was blind. He picked up courage and fooled the vulture by saying that he had heard about the vulture's good deeds and how kind he was towards the young birds. Finally, the cat said, "I came to ask you to take me as your disciple." The vulture said, "You are an enemy to these birds. I cannot take you. Go away. Otherwise I'll beat you." The persistent cat convinced the vulture that he had given up killing animals and eating meat. He said he had become pious and had pledged that he would survive only on fruits and herbs. He promised never to kill the fledglings. These words softened the vulture. The vulture also fell for the cat's praise and pretentious words of goodness. Finally, the vulture accepted the cat as his disciple.
The cat started visiting the vulture every day on the pretext of discussing spiritual matters. As days passed by, the young birds also got used to the cat and became friendly with him. The birds and the vulture trusted the cat but the cat was only waiting for an opportunity to strike. One day, when the vulture was taking a nap in the afternoon, the cat quietly came and ate all the fledglings. Once his appetite was fulfilled, he placed the remaining bones in the hole where the vulture resided and left the place quietly.
When the birds came back that evening, they noticed that all their little ones were missing. They started investigating and finally saw the bones of the fledglings near the vulture's home. They came to the conclusion that the vulture had eaten all the fledglings. They were enraged by the vulture's ingratitude and attacked the vulture. The poor, innocent vulture died without having an opportunity to tell them what really had happened.
The kindhearted vulture believed the cat's words and lost his life. The cat played a trick to achieve his ambition, fooled the vulture and escaped, landing the vulture in trouble. The cat was selfish and did not care about hurting people to accomplish what he desired.
The morals of this story are:
* One should not give shelter to the unknown.
* One must always be on guard to watch for deceit.
