The Parrot and the Merchant

A merchant had a beautiful parrot in a cage. When the merchant was setting out for India on business, he asked everyone at home, "What would you like?" He asked the parrot too. The parrot said, "Give my greetings to the parrots of India. Tell them: while you fly free in the forests, I live in a cage. Is this justice?"

In India the merchant saw some parrots in a forest and delivered the message. The moment one of the parrots heard it, it trembled and fell from its branch and lay still. The merchant was very upset: "I wish I hadn't said it; the poor bird is dead."

When he got home the parrot asked: "Did you take my message?" The merchant told him: "I did, but when one parrot heard it, it fell from its branch and died." The moment the parrot heard this, it too trembled, fell to the bottom of the cage and did not move.

The merchant wept: "My beautiful parrot is dead too!" He opened the cage, gently lifted the bird out and laid it by the window. At that instant the parrot spread its wings and flew up to a high branch!

The merchant was astonished: "What happened to you?"

The parrot called from the branch: "My brother in India sent me an answer. By falling from the branch he told me this: if you want to be free, hold your tongue and play dead; they will let you go. Farewell, merchant; you treated me well, but a cage is a cage." And it flew away.

Rumi says: the voice is very often the cage itself. Whoever knows how to be silent finds their wings.