STORY: The Oilman and his Parrot.

An oilman possessed a parrot which used to amuse him 

with its agreeable prattle, and to watch his shop when he 

went out. One day, when the parrot was alone in the shop, 

a cat upset one of the oil-jars. When the oilman returned 

home he thought that the parrot had done this mischief, 

and in his anger he smote the parrot such a blow on the 

head as made all its feathers drop off, and so stunned it that 

it lost the power of speech for several days. But one day the 

parrot saw a bald-headed man passing the shop, and recov-

ering its speech, it cried out, "Pray, whose oil-jar did you 

upset?" The passers-by smiled at the parrot's mistake in con- 

founding baldness caused by age with the loss of its own 

feathers due to a blow. 

Rumi

Image credit: Painter  Alex Akindinov