Once upon a time, there lived a small sparrow in a dense forest. The sparrow was weak, but very hardworking. His neighbor was a peacock, who was very colorful and arrogant. The peacock always made fun of the sparrow—
“You are so small! How strong are your wings? Look at me, people laugh when they hear me and see my color!”
The sparrow searched for food like himself every day, built a nest. But the peacock only talked nonsense all day. One day, a strong storm arose in the forest. The sky was dark, the wind was strong. All the birds returned to their homes. The peacock also wanted to return to his home in a hurry, but he had never learned to build a nest properly. In the strong storm, his nest began to collapse. The peacock began to tremble with fear and ask for help.
When the storm stopped, the sparrow flew away after hearing the peacock’s cry. Seeing that the bird was wet and damp, with no home or food, the sparrow took him into his small home and fed him. The bird bowed its head in shame. It understood that color, beauty or pride are of no use; hard work, patience and humility are.
The next day, the bird went to the sparrow and said, “Friend, I have insulted you. But you saved me. Teach me how to work hard.”
The sparrow smiled softly and said, “The will to learn is the greatest strength.”
From then on, the bird worked hard every day to build its own nest. The two of them would gather food together. All the birds in the forest used to say—“Pride makes a person small, but hard work makes him big.”
Lesson: It is not external beauty or pride that is needed to survive in life, but hard work, humility and a mindset of helping each other.
