Article: Short Read
Once upon a time, in a beautiful jungle, there was a huge banyan tree. A sparrow couple lived happily in a cozy nest on one of its branches. Over time, the sparrow laid eggs, and soon, tiny chicks were born.
The little ones were indeed very little! The mother sparrow would fly tirelessly all day to gather food and feed them. Days passed, and the chicks started growing. One by one, the little ones began flying and learning to find food on their own.
But among them, there was one chick that was lazy. It didn’t want to do anything. Every day it would make excuses—sometimes it said it had a stomach ache, other times it claimed to have a headache or that it felt too tired to move. No matter what day it was, it always found some excuse to stay in the nest.
The mother sparrow grew tired of this. She warned her chick many times, but the lazy chick would only repeat:
“It’s too hot today… it’s too windy… I can’t fly, I just can’t!”
Monsoon arrived. The mother would gather grains from the fields and keep them safely. She told the lazy chick, “Go get your share of grains and store them before the heavy rains.”
But as always, the chick replied:
“It’s raining too much… there’s thunder… I can’t fly, I just can’t!”
Then came the season of harvest. Everyone in the jungle, including the birds, had stocked up enough food. But the lazy sparrow had nothing saved. It kept relying on others. The mother once again told it:
“You should have thought of this earlier. Now everyone is busy feeding themselves. You need to fetch your own food.”
Still, the chick kept waiting for someone else to help.
Time passed, and one day, the lazy sparrow grew so hungry that it could not bear it anymore. Finally, it flew out of the nest, found some grains, and filled its stomach. It felt relieved. In that moment, it realized its mistake. It thought, “If I had just worked a little earlier, I wouldn’t have suffered like this.”
That realization stayed with it forever. From then on, the once lazy sparrow became wise. It learned to do its own work, gather its own food, and never again waited for others to help.
And so, with a heart full of gratitude, it flew joyfully through the skies, singing:
“If we don’t let go of laziness,
We’ll have to let go of food too.
If we don’t walk on our own,
How will we reach where we want to go?”
