This wondrous story occurred in ancient times, in a distant land whose name the narrators forgot. In that time, a thousand crows lived in that land, and a thousand owls. The crows built their nests among the leaves of a high, dense-branched tree. The owls made their homes in caves inside a large mountain surrounding the crows’ tree. Years passed, year after year.
Then a greedy king ruled the owls, neither wise nor brave. One day he looked toward the crows’ tree to be his resort and for his close followers. Because he was cowardly, he didn’t declare war on the black birds, but rather betrayed his black neighbors, the inhabitants of the tree. He attacked them suddenly while they were sleeping in safety, killing a large number of them.
In the morning, after the crows assessed their losses, the king gathered his five ministers and asked for their opinion, and what should they do about this disaster? The first minister answered, overcome by fear: “We fly! We escape, my lord, from the face of this dangerous enemy!”
The king looked at the minister with displeasure, turned his head, and asked the second minister. The minister answered after realizing the king’s displeasure with his colleague’s answer, saying, “My lord, how do we escape when we’re crows? The opinion is to mobilize soldiers and resist the enemy.”
The king thought about the minister’s words, turned to the third minister asking him what was right. The minister pretended to be rational and wise, saying, “My lord, the defeated have no choice but to surrender to reality. Let us quickly seek peace and accept what the owl king offers as conditions. If he wants prisoners, we give them to him. If he covets a part of the tree, we give it to him.”
The king looked at him with anger, turned to the fourth minister, and asked him the same question. He flapped his wings in the air and said, “There’s no benefit, my lord. There must be evacuation and leaving this ill-fated tree. Trees are many, my lord. Let’s leave it to them.”
The king wondered, how could the minister think of evacuating his land? Evacuation is only for aggressors. As for the landowners, they have more right to it. After that, the king felt there was no solution after what the four ministers had said. He hesitated in asking the fifth minister, began thinking in silence, then turned to him and said, “And you, what do you advise us—to flee or to fight or to make peace and surrender?”
The crow minister answered, “My lord, I know full well that you refused all the offers you heard, and you have the right to that. Fighting is undertaken only by the strong, and we are weak. They killed a hundred of us and wounded two hundred. Escaping is also not from our character. The free neither flee nor surrender. And I, my lord, have an opinion that saves us and keeps you on the throne of the crows a brave, generous king.”
The king asked him eagerly, “And what is this opinion? Tell me, O minister?” The crow answered, “My opinion is a secret, my lord. I cannot announce it in this place.” The king flew to a distant tree and signaled to the crow to follow him.
When they stood on the tree together, the king said, “What is the secret, O crow, that saves us, God willing?” The crow said, “The trick, my lord.” The king wondered and said, “The trick? What trick do you mean?” The crow minister said, “Haven’t you heard, my lord, the saying of the wise that numbers overcome bravery, and trickery defeats strength? I will be your trick, my lord. When we return to the tree, pretend you’re in a furious rage. Don’t tell anyone the reason. Just turn around, peck me, and order them to peck me, beat me, and pluck the feathers from my neck and tail, then throw me under the tree. After that, take them and depart to the place I told you about. Treat the weak, train the strong. Please, my lord, don’t tell anyone that, so there’s no traitor among us who confesses against us, and our trick fails, or the owls torture one of us, and he confesses what we’re doing.”
The king indeed did as the crow had told him. When he returned to the tree, he was furious and raging. He started beating the crow while the rest of the flock did the same. After that, they flew to a distant place. When the owls came, they found the tree empty of crows, so they began laughing at their escape and mocking the cowardly king of the crows.
But they heard a voice groaning under the tree saying, “Ah, my neck. Ah, my tail. The crows have killed me. I will take revenge on them. Ah, a drop of water. Whoever hears me, whether a crow or an owl. Ah, my neck.” Some nearby owls heard him, took him to the king, and decided his matter.
There, the owls were celebrating the victory. They brought the crow to the king and told him what they had heard from him. The king asked him, “Why did they do that to you?” He said to him, “O great king of the owls, they tortured me because I spoke the truth and confronted them with their weakness. You are a strong king, stronger than all the crows. Therefore, I asked them to present gifts and offerings to you until you’re satisfied and allow us to remain with your people on that tree. But they beat me and tortured me because I spoke the truth. And now, my lord, I am under your mercy. If you wish, kill me. If you wish, keep me alive and live for you loyal and faithful.”
The king became conceited with himself, that he was stronger than the crows and had defeated them, and history would immortalize his name in the caves of the owls. He thought that if he forgave the crow, they would say about him that he was generous and great, forgiving the weak. Indeed, the king forgave the crow, allowed him to fly, and approach the great tree he used to live on with his group. But he watched him from afar until he was reassured about him.
One day, the crow minister flew to the place the king had sent him to, and the rest of the crow people. There, he told the king that the time had come for revenge, that the owls come out at night to hunt and gather in one cave during the day because they cannot fly in the light. He asked the king and the rest of the crows to go in the morning to the sheep herders’ house, bring wood from in front of it, and throw it in front of the owls’ cave. He would bring fire until the wood ignited and the cave lit up before the owls’ eyes, so they couldn’t see or escape, making it easy to get rid of them.
In the morning of the next day, the crows prepared for battle. They brought the wood in front of the cave. The crow ignited the fire until the cave lit up. The owls were frightened and seized with terror when they found the crows attacking them. The crows were able, through the minister’s trick, to get rid of all the owls and recover their precious tree once again. The brave king rewarded his loyal minister for his clever trick that returned them to their homeland safely.