One day, a hunter got up early and set off into the forest. It was a hot day, so the birds and animals were hiding from the sun. He hunted all day but he didn’t catch anything. By evening the man was hot, tired and worried.
Suddenly he heard the sweet song of a bird. He looked up and saw a very small bird with beautiful red feathers.
The bird said, “I can see that you are poor and hungry. I will give you one of my feathers to take home. If you cook it in a pot of boiling water, you will have a good dinner.”
The hunter thanked the bird and went home. As soon as he arrived, he told everything to his wife. Then he dropped the feather in some boiling water.
“You silly man, how can we eat a feather?” asked his wife.
The man didn’t answer, but when he looked into the pot, he saw there a large, delicious dinner. His wife began to eat greedily.
Every day the man went to the forest were the beautiful red bird gave him a feather. And every day the man and his wife ate well. However, the woman was greedy. She said, “If we had the whole bird, we would have more food.”
So one day the woman followed her husband into the forest. He didn’t see her. The woman heard the sweet song of the little red bird. She threw a stone and killed it.
The man was very sad but the wife said, “Now we’ll have plenty of food every day.”
At home the woman pulled three red feathers off the bird and put them into the hot water.
She cooked them but the feathers were just feathers.
From that day on, the hunter and his wife were always hungry.
QUESTIONS:
Why didn’t the hunter catch any animals?
Why did the bird give the hunter a feather?
Was the hunter’s wife pleased with the feather?
Why did the hunter’s wife follow her husband?
What did she do to the bird? Why?
What happened when the hunter’s wife cooked the feathers?
What lesson does the story teach us?