In the quiet, beautiful village overlooking a sweet river and many trees, the mother hen lived with Jamila, the daughter of the woodcutter. Her duties included caring for the animals in the barn and the birds too. The mother hen was brooding on her eggs. As she was accustomed and learned from the grandmother hen before her death, in order for the eggs to hatch and the chicks to come out, she must brood on them and warm them for a period of time, then wait for them to come out.
The mother hen performed her duty toward her eggs until Jamila heard one day the sound of the small chicks pecking at the eggs from inside. Her face brightened with joy, and she entered where the mother hen was brooding to help her if she wanted. Soon, the chicks began to come out of their eggs in a wonderful way. The mother hen stood up and said: You are nine chicks. Then she pecked at the tenth egg with her beak and helped her small chick come out to life.
The chicks were beautiful and obedient to the mother hen, except for the last, delayed chick, which the hen named Soso. Soso was not clean like his chick brothers. He refused to eat the beneficial grain like them and went to eat the green herbs from the barn. His brothers drank from the water vessel and preserved it well. As soon as they finished, they raised their heads thanking God. But Soso was completely the opposite of them. He would turn over the vessel after drinking and didn’t care to thank God for this blessing.
The mother hen was sad about Soso’s condition. Water is God’s blessing to us. We must thank Him for it. Birds aren’t the only ones who drink water. Rather, all humans, animals, plants, and birds - we were all created from water, and our duty is to preserve it and thank God. But she reassured herself that Soso, after becoming a large rooster, would appreciate the value of everything and back away from stubbornness.
Soso became a rooster, and a beautiful tail grew for him, known for being red and large. But unfortunately, he increased in stubbornness, which saddened the mother hen. She saw him waking up in the afternoon, while all the chickens and birds woke up at dawn, for the roosters crow to wake the sleepers and begin their day. Meanwhile, the lazy Soso remained sleeping.
One day, the sun rose to find everyone working at once and thanking their Lord for the blessing of water, except the lazy Soso, whom she hadn’t seen awake since early morning. She began to get angry and turned very red. Consequently, the temperature rose. Jamila the girl began watering everyone until Soso woke up and started asking for water. They all insisted on teaching him to preserve water just as he insisted on stubbornness. They agreed to deprive him of water for a period until he appreciated its value and thanked God for it.
Indeed, Soso felt the value of water when he was deprived of it. He asked to drink, and the mother hen gave him some water. He drank and didn’t waste a single drop of it. He raised his head thanking his Lord. All the barn animals encouraged him. From that time, Soso began waking up early and crowing with the arrival of dawn like the other roosters, without laziness.