The Cicada and the Owl

An owl slept in a hollow tree by day and hunted by night. In the same tree lived a cicada, and it sang from morning to evening: chirr chirr chirr, chirr chirr chirr...

The owl could not sleep. "Please be quiet for a while, I work at night and I need to sleep in the day," she said. The cicada went on even louder: "I exist to sing!"

The owl asked once more, and once more. The cicada paid no attention. In the old tale the owl finally tricks the cicada and eats it. But our owl was clever and found another way.

"Listen," she said. "Your song is very beautiful, but nobody listens in the daytime; everyone is at work. If you sang at night, when the moon is up and the whole forest is quiet, your song would reach the stars. And I would listen to you while I hunt."

The cicada thought about it. It liked the idea. It kept quiet by day and began to sing at night. And truly, at night everyone listened to it; the foxes, the rabbits, even the streams. The owl slept comfortably by day and hunted by night to the sound of a beautiful song.

From that day on there was a rule in the forest: let somebody's sleeping time not be your singing time. Now you be quiet too; perhaps a cicada at your window will begin its night song.