The Falcon and the Chicken

The falcon was chastising the hen. "You are an ungrateful bird!" he said. "The humans give you food daily, and they have built you that coop where you can sleep at night. Yet whenever the humans come near you, you flap your wings as if to escape."
"And with good reason!" replied the hen. "I have seen hundreds of my fellow chickens roasting on spits in the humans' kitchen and served for dinner on their tables. If you saw falcons roasting on spits, then you would flap your wings and fly away so that the humans would not catch you."

---

Inspired by: The Tortoise and the Geese, and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton.
Notes: For another fable about the fate of farm animals, see The Food of Death.

hen