Deep in the forest was a huge tree. It was home to many birds and little animals like squirrels. The birds had chosen the wisest of the bird to be their leader. He always looked after them.
One day, a strong wind was blowing. The dry leaves from the tree shook and fell to the ground. Most of the birds were sitting on the tree. As the leader watched, two of the branches of the tree were rubbing against each other because of the wind. The wood scrapings from the branches fell to the ground. Due to the rubbing of wood against wood, sparks flew. Some of the sparks also fell to the ground, many becoming cold before they reached the ground.
The leader watched all this with a worried expression. He thought that there was some danger of a fire if the sparks fell down. He called a meeting of all the birds on the tree.
“My friends,” he said, “the branches of this tree are rubbing against one another and causing sparks to fly. Some of these are falling on the ground which is covered with dry leaves. It is likely that this will cause a fire. I suggest we move away quickly from this tree.”
There was quite a discussion about the proposal of the leader. Many of the birds were very sensible. They could see that the leader was right in warning everyone. So, they decided to fly away from the tree immediately to save themselves before any fire broke out.
But there were some birds who were very foolhardy. “You all are very frightened even if there is a breeze! Silly fellows! Nothing is going to happen. You know the leader is always scared of things. He is not brave like us,” they boasted, “We are going to stay here, not run away like you fools.”
After some time, a flight of birds took off from the tree, taking their young ones also with them. The others made fun of them and stayed on. Even the squirrels had quietly moved to other trees.
At night, some sparks fell on the dry leaves that caught fire. Slowly, the flames shot up and spread. They reached the tree that caught fire too. The smoke became dense. The birds who had stayed behind woke up choking. They were blinded by the smoke and heat. Soon the tree was reduced to ashes and, with it, all those foolish birds. They should have listened to their leader’s wise advice.
