A sparrow and a crow lived in the same town. The crow built a house of mud, and the sparrow made a house of stone. One day, the wind lashed, and the rain pelted down, causing the crow’s house to collapse. Seeking shelter, the crow went to the sparrow’s house and knocked on the door, saying, “Sister, sister, open your door.”

The sparrow was cooking snacks and didn’t want the crow to eat them, so she replied, “Wait, wait.” Once she had finished cooking and putting away the food, she opened the door.

The crow explained, “My house was destroyed, but your stone house is strong. Let me stay here.” The sparrow was worried that the crow might find the food, so she kept a careful watch. “I’ll sleep in the rafters,” the crow said politely. But the food was stored in the rafters, so the sparrow quickly said, “No, no. Sleep down here below.”

“Please, I’ll just curl up in a corner up there and leave by morning,” said the crow.

The sparrow reluctantly agreed but stayed awake the entire night, keeping an eye on the crow to ensure it wouldn’t eat her food. The crow began to munch on something, making loud crunching sounds. “What’s that?” asked the sparrow.

“Nothing,” the crow replied. “I’m just chewing a little betel nut.”

Soon, there was another crunching sound, and again the crow said it was chewing betel nut. This continued throughout the night, until the crow had eaten all of the sparrow’s food!

In the morning, seeing that it had fooled the sparrow, the crow flew away. The sparrow soon discovered what had happened and said, “That rascal crow! I’ll get her for this.”

Flying all around, the sparrow eventually found the crow hiding in a banyan tree. Speaking sweetly, the sparrow said, “Sister, why did you leave so hastily? I wanted to feed you a feast. All the food was ready, but you left before I could serve it to you this morning.”

Believing the sparrow because of her kind words, the crow flew back to the sparrow’s house.

“Look, there’s vadai and payasam, and everything else ready on the stove,” the sparrow said. “I’ll give you an oil bath, and then you can eat.”

So, the sparrow rubbed oil on the crow, but then, without warning, poured scalding water all over her. Not satisfied with that, the sparrow tied the crow up in a sack, took her out to the street, and called, “Tiger! Tiger!”

She sold the crow for a good price, took the money, bought more food, and had a wonderful meal.

A folk story from Tamil Nadu, sourced from ‘Moral Fictions: Tamil Folktale from the Oral Tradition‘ collected by Stuart Blackburn.

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