Once there was a hen who used to peck herself with her beak to grow more beautiful each day. With every pecking, a loose feather fell from her body. One day, two hens were talking about this habit of the bird when an owl family heard it all. They went to the dove family and told that a hen pulled out all her feathers to look pretty to the cocks. The doves then told the pigeons about two hens that had plucked out all their feathers to attract the cock’s attention.
The pigeons went to the bats and told them of the three hens that died of cold as they had plucked out all their feathers. And so the story travelled and finally reached its place of origin stating that five hens had plucked out all their feathers to show which of them could best attract the cocks and then they pecked one another and died. The hen never knew that it was her own story. She said, “I despise those hens.” The story was put into the newspaper; it was printed; and it’s quite true that one little feather may easily become five hens.
