A labourer heard a nightingale singing in a tree near his home throughout the summer night. He was so pleased that he decided to capture it, so that she could sing for him whenever he wished. When he approached her with a net, the nightingale begged to be spared, saying that caged nightingale never sings. The labourer refused to listen, and caught her and forced her to sing for him. The bird tried to convince him. The man threatens to eat her if she did not sing. The bird promised to tell him three valuable things if he set her free. As soon as the laborer opened the cage, the nightingale flew into a tree and give out the following pieces of wisdom: “Never believe a captive’s promise; keep what you have; and sorrow not over what is lost forever.”
The Labourer and the Nightingale
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