The king had a deep love for falcons and was indeed an accomplished falconer. He kept a separate area of his palace dedicated to his outstanding birds and visited them regularly. One afternoon, after he’d finished some routine business with his advisers, he decided that it was the perfect time to fly his favorite falcon. But, alas, when he entered the enclosure he saw that the
bird had escaped!
The falcon, having been reared in the palace all her life and cared for tenderly by the king himself, had somehow gotten out and lost her way, and had ended up at an old woman’s cottage. The woman was preparing a pot of soup for her family when she caught sight of the astounding bird perched on her wall. She felt sorry for her and grabbed her by the talons, tying them up with a piece of string so she couldn’t fl y away, and began to stroke her beautiful feathers.
She decided, though, that the bird’s long, unkempt feathers needed pruning, so she cut them as short as she thought appropriate. Then she noticed the bird’s talons and thought it best to cut them as well, for they seemed not to have been trimmed for a long while. The entire time she tended to the poor falcon, she stroked her caringly and whispered to her sympathetically:
“Where have you been, little one, that they’ve treated you so badly? Look how
long your feathers and nails had grown! You should’ve fl own to Mother much
sooner.”
The lost falcon was now trapped for good, unable to fly or climb away.
Meanwhile, the king and his soldiers had searched the entire county for her and were returning to the palace empty-handed and downhearted. As they rode through the last village on their route, all of a sudden, the king caught sight of his poor falcon, who didn’t look anything like her old, beautiful self but was still completely familiar to the king. In the midst of the smoke and dust of the old woman’s poor hut, the bird had lost her glory; the glamour of the palace had been completely washed away.
Tears welled up in the king’s eyes, and he spoke: “This is your punishment for being ungrateful and forsaking my blessing. Ending up in thisdisgusting hut with this old, ignorant woman is what you truly deserve!” The king reproached his bird while stroking her injured feathers lovingly.
The falcon was shamefaced and looked at her master with utter surrender and regret. If only she could speak, she would tell the king how sorry she was for being so naïve and ungrateful. Without words, she begged the king for forgiveness, admitting that she had taken her noble stature for granted.
With her expressive eyes, she confessed that even though she’d lost her feathers and talons, she was not unduly distressed because they would eventuually grow back; she implored that she would gladly tolerate the pain of her diminished grandeur in the meantime, because she knew that the king was a merciful master! If only the king could find it in his heart to forgive her transgression, just this once!
