Golden swan story

There was a huge tree. Thousands of swans lived on it. There was an intelligent and visionary golden swan among them. He was respectfully called ‘Tauji’. Seeing a vine wrapped around the trunk near the root of the tree, the golden swan said, “Look, destroy this vine. One day this vine will prove to be painful for all of us. A young swan laughed and said, “Tauji, how can this little vine prove to be painful for all of us?”

Tauji explained- “Gradually it will stick to the trunk of the tree and will become big. It will become like a ladder to climb the tree from bottom to top. Any hunter will climb up to us and all of us will be killed. “No one believed that ‘how will a small vine will become a ladder”. As time passed, It happened just as Tauji had said. One day when all the swans had gone out to peck the grain, a hunter came there. As soon as he saw the ladder made on the tree, he climbed on the tree and laid a trap, and left. In the evening, as soon as the swans sat on the tree, they were badly trapped in the trap laid by the hunter. Then everyone realized their mistake.

A swan said, “Tauji, we are sorry, we have made a big mistake, Please suggest to us how to get out of this crisis..” When all the swans accepted the mistake, Tauji told them, “Listen to me carefully. When the hunter comes in the morning, all will pretend to be dead.  The hunter will take you out of the net and keep you on the ground. I’ll whistle as soon as he puts down the last swan. Everyone will fly away on hearing my whistle.

In the morning, the hunter came. All the swans did as Tauji had explained, Hunter put swans on the ground thinking them dead. All the swans flew away with the sound of the whistle. The hunter watched in surprise.

Lesson: This golden swan story teaches us that we should take elders’ advice seriously.