The Bird

Long ago, on a mountain in Tibet, there was a tiny village. Within the village there was a humble cottage. In the cottage there dwelled a venerable old man. The aged man had lived in the cottage for as long as anyone in the village could remember. He rarely left the sanctuary of his home, but he received many visitors. It was reputed that the old man was the wisest person in Tibet, and for this reason many pilgrims sought his sage advice. It was said that the elderly man's counsel was both ingenious and fair and in the years that he resided in that cottage he solved many a conflict and answered many questions, both practical and metaphysical.

But as the old man's reputation grew, so did the number of people who sought him, not for advice, but for the chance to prove him wrong. To confound him with unsolvable intellectual riddles and conundrums and in doing so prove themselves his superior. And for as long as anyone could remember, the old man's logical and sagacious mind always won the day, solving any puzzles that were put before him and doing it in such a way that none could dispute his enlightened wisdom.

One day a prideful and clever youth entered the old man's cottage. Clutched between the young man's hands was a tiny object that none could see. The young one bowed before the ancient and he spoke these words, "I have in my hands a small bird. I put it to you, old man; is this bird dead or is it alive?"

Right away the old one saw the ingenious trap that the callow youth had set for him. If he responded that the bird was alive, the young man would crush it in his hands and the old one would be proven wrong. However, if he stated that the bird was dead, the youngling would open his hands releasing a bird that was very much alive, and again, the old man would be proven false.

The elderly man carefully considered his response and after a time he spoke, "The answer, my son, is in your hands."

This fable was originally conveyed to me by my friend Jerry McKinney at the Hebron Camp and Conference Center in the early 90s.