The King's Loyal Falcon

A king and his falcon were out hunting. The king grew thirsty and took some water from a stream in his drinking cup, but the falcon knocked the cup out of the king's hands.
"You clumsy bird!" the king shouted.
He filled the cup again from the stream, and the falcon again knocked the cup from his hands.
The king then struck the falcon and killed it.
The king's attendant came running up. "Be careful, sire!" he shouted. "The body of a poisonous snake lies in the waters upstream."
Only then did the king realize the falcon had saved him.

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Inspired by: The Tortoise and the Geese, and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton.
Notes: Compare a similar story told in Tibet about a raven: How the Raven Saved the Hunter.

(Mughal painting, 17th century)