1. The Privet Bush and the Blackbird

The thick privet bush sat in the sun letting its new fruit ripen with sweet juices. Suddenly it felt its branches and its tender fruit pricked by the sharp claws and beak of a blackbird. It complained to the blackbird to stop plucking off its fruit. But the blackbird ignored the bush and kept eating its delicious fruit, ripping at it with sharp, powerful claws.

The bush spoke up again, this time angry and hurt: “That’s my fruit. I made it. And I never said you could have it.”

To this the blackbird replied sourly: “Silence, rude bramble! Don’t you know Nature made you to produce these fruits for my hunger? Not only that,” the blackbird laughed, “but next winter you will serve as fuel for the fire.”

The bush listened patiently and tears trickled like dew from its tough lean branches. It watched the blackbird stuff its gullet with berries until it was full, and then it flew arrogantly into the warm summer sun.

A few days passed and the blackbird returned to the privet bush to feed on the last of the privet’s berries.

Not far off, some humans were collecting birds for their zoo. When they saw the blackbird, healthy and fat, and distracted by the feast of berries, they wanted it. So while the blackbird was lost in satisfying his hunger, the humans flopped a net over it.

Within an hour, some boughs were cut from the very same privet bush the blackbird was feeding on. The boughs were then made into the rods or bars of a cage, and the blackbird was imprisoned.

When the blackbird chattered and screeched that it wanted its freedom, the privet spoke up: “Remember me, blackbird, I am not yet consumed by the fire as you said. Instead, I will see you in prison for the rest of your life.”

Moral: Taking without gratitude is a crime.