Once there was a sailor who travelled to faraway lands. When he returned home, he always brought something nice for his wife. Once, he sailed away to a distant land. There, he saw a man selling exotic birds. Among them were eight talking mynas. The sailor bought them all for his wife. But on his way back home, he remembered that his wife’s lucky number was nine. Cleverly, he bought a native myna and placed it in the cage with the foreign mynas. When the sailor presented them to his wife, the talking mynas chirped:
“Outside the gates, we were eight.
But with time, we are nine.” The sailor’s wife saw the ninth myna and asked, “Why is one of them silent?” The sailor told him about what had happened. Instead of being angry, his wife said, “How thoughtful of you to remember my lucky number!” Then she cooked him a lavish meal.
