“The young parrot brings food to his parents.” Scene from “The Young Parent.”
Illustration by H. Willebeek Le Mair (1939).
The Young Parrot and the Farmer
One day, a flock of parrots were on a farmer’s field, eating all of the loose rice. However, they left the plants alone. The farmer’s servant was out there and saw one of the younger parrots gathering a great deal of rice in its beak, but not eating it. Once the birds had left, the servant went to tell the farmer about it.
The farmer was surprised by this and said to his servant, “Trap this parrot, but do not kill it. I want to speak to it and see why it is storing away rice.”
Before the parrots returned the next day, the servant set up the trap.
Suddenly, the young parrot felt itself caught. It looked down and saw a piece of string wrapped around its foot. It struggled and bit at the string, but it was unable to free itself. The servant, who had been waiting in the bushes, grabbed this parrot and took it to the farmer.
The bird was frightened but didn’t struggle.
“What is this?” the farmer cried. “A bird who is not scared of humans?”
“No, I’m not afraid of humans” the young parrot replied. Both the farmer and his servant were shocked. A talking parrot? “I’m only afraid of not being able to return to my parents.”
“Why are you afraid of that?”
“Because they cannot fly and if I do not return to them, they will surely starve for lack of rice.”
“So you are storing up the rice in your beak for them?”
“Yes, I store it up each time my flock and I find a field of rice.”
“How honorable,” replied the farmer. “I thought of keeping you as a pet, but I will let you go, so that you may serve your family.”
“Thank you,” replied the young parrot. “I and my kind will never forget this kind deed. If you ever need help, simply whistle three times and my flock will come to your aid.”
Several weeks passed. By now, the farmer’s fields were rich with rice. It was sure to be one of the best harvests in centuries. While the farmer was out admiring his fields, he saw a dark cloud on the horizon.
“How odd,” he thought. “The monsoon season is not close and yet there is a huge dark cloud coming towards my farm.”
As this “cloud” drew closer, the farmer realized what it truly was. The buzzing of the cloud could be heard from miles away.
“Locusts!” the farmer cried.
He despaired at this. It was just his luck that a swarm of locusts would eat his best harvest. He had no idea what to do. He would never be able to stop all of them. The locust swarm landed in his neighbor’s fields and began to eat everything there. The farmer almost lost all hope, but then he remembered the promise that the young parrot had made some time ago.
The farmer whistled three times as loud as he could and soon a whole flock of parrots flew down from the forest.
The young parrot came to him and asked, “What do you need, kind farmer?”
The farmer pointed out the swarm but a mile or two away. He said, “There is a swarm of locusts that has descended on my neighbor’s farm. You must eat all of them or the whole countryside will be ravaged and hundreds will starve.”
The parrots flew off in a hurry. Within a few minutes, all of the locusts had either fallen to the ground, dead, or had been gobbled up by the parrots.
When the young parrot returned to the farmer, the farmer said, “You have saved me, my family, and the entire village. You may eat of my fields whenever you like.”
Every year after this, not a single locust descended on the farmer’s fields and the flock of parrots always had enough to eat.
Author’s Note
I adapted this story from “The Young Parrot,” in Twenty Jataka Tales. In the original story, the young parrot saves rice for his parents, is trapped by the farmer, and is later set free. I decided to expand on this story by having the farmer be rewarded for his kindness. In the original story, the parrot only thanks him for his kindness and flies off. Karma plays a large role in my adaptation. Not only is the parrot set free because of his sense of familial obligation, but the farmer and the rest of the village are saved because the farmer performed a kind deed.
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