The Parrot Who Learned Two Languages

Two parrot chicks from the same clutch were separated when their nest fell during a storm — one was found and raised by a hunter, who taught him to call out "Catch him! Kill him!" whenever visitors approached, useful phrases for luring prey. The other was found by a gentle sage, who taught him to call out "Welcome, friend, come sit and rest" to every visitor who passed his hermitage.

Years later, a traveling king, lost in the forest, happened to pass near the hunter's camp first. The parrot there screeched its violent greeting, and the frightened king fled immediately, certain danger awaited him inside. Continuing his journey, he came upon the sage's hermitage, where the second parrot called out its warm welcome, and the king, relieved and curious, stopped to rest and ended up staying several peaceful days with the wise sage.

When the king later learned that both parrots were, remarkably, born from the very same parents, he remarked to his court that the story proved something profound: it was never blood or birth that determined a creature's character, but entirely the words and company it was raised among — the same beginning had produced two entirely different endings, based purely on what each had been taught to say.