The Bird with Two Heads

A strange and rare bird called Bharunda lived by a lake, its single body carrying two heads that each had their own mind, their own hunger, and their own voice — though whatever one head ate, both bodies were nourished equally.

One day the first head found a delicious, glowing fruit and ate it eagerly, savoring every bite without offering any to the second head, who had been dozing. When the second head woke and learned what had happened, it felt deeply insulted at being left out and brooded bitterly over the slight for days.

Some time later, wandering along the shore, the second head came across a poisonous fruit and, still nursing his resentment, ate it alone in petty spite, thinking only of paying back the insult in kind. But because the two heads shared a single body and a single life, the poison killed them both together — the second head's revenge destroying not just the one it wished to punish, but himself as well.