Short Stories » The Strange Bird with Two Heads

The Strange Bird with Two Heads

Once upon a time, there lived a strange bird with two heads; one facing the left and the other facing the right. The two heads used to fight and argue with each other, even for very simple reasons. Though they shared the same body, the two heads behaved like rivals!

The strange bird lived in a big banyan tree, along the bank of a river.

One day, while flying over the river, the left head of the bird saw a beautiful tree that had a bright red fruit. The left head of the bird wanted to eat the fruit and the bird flew down to pick the fruit from the tree.

The bird plucked the sweet smelling fruit, and sat by the banks of the river and started eating it. The fruit was eaten by the left head. While it was eating, the right head asked, “Can you give me a piece to taste?”

The left head said, “See, we have only one stomach. So even if I eat in my mouth, it will go only into our stomach.”

“But I want to taste the fruit, so you should give me.”

The left head replied in anger, “I saw the fruit and hence, I have the right to eat it without sharing with anyone.”

The right head felt sad and became silent.

A few days later, while the bird was flying over the river again, the right head saw a beautiful pink fruit in a tree. The bird flew down near the tree and tried to pick the fruit and eat it.

The other birds living in the tree said, “Don’t eat it. It is a poisonous fruit. It will kill you.”

The left head shouted, “Don’t eat it. Don’t eat it.”

However the right head did not listen to the left head. The right head said, “I will eat it, because I saw it. You have no right to stop me.”

The left head shouted, “Please don’t eat it. We will all die.”

The right head said, “Since I saw it, I have the right to eat it.” Clearly, the right head was trying to take revenge on the left head for not sharing the red fruit with it earlier.

Finally, the pink fruit was eaten by the right head, and in a few minutes, the strange bird with the two heads dropped down dead!

Moral: A quarrel by the individuals in a family will affect the whole family badly.