Panchatantra

A Bird With Two Heads

Long long ago, there was a strange bird. Due to some curse from the gods, the bird was born with two heads. It was a case of one body with two minds. The bird was enjoying its normal routine life. Every morning, the bird began its day by foraging for food. While one head used to look for food, another head used to keep a watch on danger. Thus, both the heads had developed a sense of cooperation with each other.

Seeing the tasty fruit

One day, while the bird was hopping on the ground; it saw a very tasty fruit. The fruit looked so inviting that each head wanted to enjoy its taste. They began quarreling for who would get to taste the fruit. The first head wanted to taste the fruit because it was the first to see the fruit. The second head said that it was useless to fight for a fruit. The second head suggested that they should stop fighting and gift the fruit to their dear wife. Thus, both of them agreed on parting with the fruit for their wife.

Seeing the poisonous fruit

bird with two heads

The first head was not too pleased with this show of oneupmanship of the second head. The first head was looking for an opportune time to settle scores. That time came too soon; when the second head saw a highly posionous fruit hanging from a bush. It thought it the right time to teach a lesson to its opponent. The second hand did not give it a second thought and gulped down the poisonous fruit. Within a few moments, the bird died a painful death. This was indeed a sad end to the life of the strange bird.

The moral of the story is being in a state of two minds is never a good thing. Moreover, if even a single finger is chopped off; it is going to harm the whole hand.