The Story of the Turtle and the Two Ducks

That story tells that excessive talking is a blameworthy habit, which can harm its owner and lead to his destruction, and that silence is a virtue that a person should adhere to in many times.

Story events:

It is told that on the shore of one of the beautiful lakes lived three friends: a turtle, a black duck, and a white duck. The two ducks loved the turtle even though she talked a lot. Therefore, they advised her to reduce her talking because excessive talking and chattering are bad habits.

One day the beautiful lake dried up, the fish escaped from it, and the grass disappeared from its banks. The friends no longer found what to eat. The two ducks thought of flying far away and searching for a new lake filled with water and food. But the turtle was sad because she could not fly and feared that her friends would leave her.

But the two ducks were loyal friends and told the turtle that they would not leave her alone to die of hunger. They brought a wooden stick and asked the turtle to put it inside her mouth and close her mouth tightly and not speak for any reason whatsoever, otherwise that would cause her death.

The turtle agreed and promised them not to open her mouth and not speak no matter what she heard of people’s talk, until they all reached safety. Indeed, the two ducks carried the wooden stick and the turtle and flew until they flew high. During their flight, they passed by a group of people, and the people were amazed at the ducks’ deed, saying: Oh wonder, the two ducks are carrying a turtle.

Whenever the friends passed by a group of people, they heard the people talking about them and amazed at their deed. The turtle at the beginning of the journey was silent and did not answer anyone, as she had promised her friends.

But the turtle in the end could not be patient and was unable to be silent, for her nature overcame her. When she heard the people talking, she said to them: Why are you amazed, O people? They are my friends. No sooner had the turtle opened her mouth and before she finished her speech than she found herself falling from a high place after the stick slipped from her mouth, and she fell on the ground in a strange wild place, and her bones were broken.

The turtle regretted that she did not listen to her friends’ advice. She screamed from pain: I have lost my friends and my bones are broken, and I will die in this place from hunger alone because of talking.