{An Aesop Fable}
Borrowed Splendour
Zeus decided to select a bird and make it the king over the birds.
He directed them to appear before him and he would choose the most handsome to reign over them.
They all went to the river and pruned themselves to be ready for the selection.
A jackdaw realized how plain he was. He collected all the feathers that had moulted from the other birds and fastened them all over his body to look the most handsome of them all.
The birds all paraded before Zeus.
He was very impressed by the striking appearance and plumage of the jackdaw.
He was about to award the throne to the jackdaw when the other birds realized what had happened.
They indignantly plucked off their own feathers from the jackdaw.
Exposing him as the jackdaw he had always been.
(Each Aesop fable illustrated a moral or a behavioural lesson. Which lesson do you draw from this fable?)
