Once, there lived a hunter with his wife. They were very poor and always hungry. The hunter often went to the forest. But he was a bad hunter and could get very little to eat. One day, while the hunter was walking through the forest, he heard the sweet song of a bird. He looked up at the tree and saw a very small bird with red feathers. The bird said, “I can see that you are poor and hungry. I am giving you one of my small feathers. Take it home and cook it, and you will have a good dinner.”
The hunter took the feather and thanked the bird. He went home happily and told everything to his wife. She laughed and didn’t believe him. “How can the feather become food? You should have caught the bird and killed it. Then, we could have cooked the bird and ate it,” said the wife. He did not answer his wife and went into the kitchen.
The hunter put the feather into a pot and cooked it. After some time, he saw food into the pot. He immediately called his wife and showed him. They were happy and enjoyed the delicious food. Every day, he went to the forest and the bird gave him a red feather.
Every day, the hunter’s wife insisted him to bring the bird home so that she might cook more feathers and have more food. But the hunter refused and said, “The little bird is my friend, so I can’t kill it.” One day, the woman went into the forest and killed it. The man was very upset when he saw the dead bird but the greedy woman didn’t care about anyone. She pulled two red feathers off the bird and put them into the hot water. She cooked and cooked them but the feathers didn’t change into food. From that day, they were again always hungry.
