Little Sparrow and the Hunter

Cemil Meriç Secondary School

 

The Tale of the Little Sparrow and the Hunter

Once upon a time, a hunter set a trap to hunt birds and a little sparrow was caught in the trap. When the hunter took the little sparrow in his hand, he was very surprised because the little sparrow was talking!

The little sparrow said:

“Oh, son of man, you have eaten many sheep, cows and camels; you were not even satisfied with their meat. Will you be satisfied with my tiny meat? I cannot even fill the shell of your tooth. If you release me, I will give you three pieces of advice. These pieces of advice may be more useful to you than I am. I will give you the first one here in your hand, the second one on this roof, and the third one on the branch of this tree. If you listen to these pieces of advice, you will be happy for the rest of your life.”

The hunter liked this offer. Thinking that he could not fill his stomach with this little sparrow, which had no meat anyway, he thought that the little sparrow’s advice might be useful and said:

“Okay, tell me.”

The little sparrow began to give his first piece of advice:

“My first piece of advice is this: Never believe in something that is impossible.”

After saying this, the little sparrow flew from the hunter’s hand and landed on the roof opposite and gave his second piece of advice:

“My second piece of advice is this: Never be sad about the opportunities you missed.”

Then the little sparrow continued:

“Fool of a man, if you had killed me, you would have found a pearl weighing 250 grams in my crop. This pearl would have made you and your children rich. That pearl was yours, but it was not your destiny. You missed such a pearl that there was no other pearl in the world.”

When the hunter heard this, he began to tear his hair out in sorrow:

“Oh my! I lost my chance with my own hands. Oh my foolish mind!”

When the bird saw the hunter in this state, it spoke sarcastically:

“Oh, you fool! What advice did I just give you? Look at your state. Why are you sad because the pearl has gone from your hand? Didn’t I tell you, ‘Never be sad about the opportunity you missed?’ Also, in my first piece of advice, I said, ‘Never believe in something that won’t happen.’ How can you believe that there is a pearl weighing 250 grams inside me when you know that I don’t weigh 250 grams?”

The hunter realized his mistake upon hearing the words of the little sparrow and came to his senses.

“Okay, beautiful sparrow! You have one last piece of advice. Tell it and go,” he said.

The little sparrow landed on a branch and replied sarcastically:

“Amazing! You followed my first two pieces of advice so well, are you going to follow the third?” he said and flew away, flapping his wings towards the blue sky.