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This is another famous fable among children. It is a story about the crow and the peacock. 

The Story of a Crow and a Peacock

Once upon a time, in the deep jungle, a crow and a peacock were the very best of friends. During that time, both of them were just plain white birds. They will scavenge for their food together, play together, and even build their nests next to each other.

One day, while both of them were looking for food near the border of a village, the Crow suddenly stumbled upon a bucket of colourful magic paint. Both of them stood dumbfounded for a while. "Hmm .. what are we going to do with this paint?" the Crow thinking aloud. As the Crow was well known to be the clever one between both of them, the Peacock just stood there waiting. He did not even know what it was, but since he was well known to be a proud animal, he pretended to know and did not ask his good friend for explanation.

The Crow then sit on a durian tree trunk and mulled over the matter. He was wondering what need to be done, and how it could be done. While his friend the Crow thinking on the matter, the Peacock was scuffling around the paint and trying to figure out the weird stuff.

"Eureka! I get it!" suddenly the Crow shouted. The Peacock was so surprised that he hide behind the durian tree. "Oh! Come on Peacock! Come out from behind that tree. I was just so happy that we can do something with this magic paint" said the Crow with a big smile. 

Tentatively the Peacock walked towards the Crow with a puzzled look. "What are we going to do with this paint?" he asked. "We are going to put this paint on our feathers and make our feathers colourful. Then we will be the most enviable birds in this jungle" said the Crow. He could not hide his excitement. He was jumping with joy.

"Okay". Said the Peacock. "But how? Who is going to help us paint our feathers?" asked the Peacock again. "Do not be silly, Peacock. We will help each other" said the Crow. In his excitement, he has forgotten his promise not to call the Peacock "silly". The Peacock's feathers were ruffled when he was called "silly" but he kept quite. He wanted to see if the idea of the Crow working or not. 

"Okay. Since you know I am a bit slow in understanding all new things, can you show me how to do it first?" asked the Peacock to the Crow. "Ahh ... why it is always me to show you things?" whined the Crow. But because he wanted to show his friend his cleverness, he agreed to paint the Peacock first. 

"Come and sit at this tree stump, and I will show you how to paint our feathers" said the Crow. For the next hours, he painstakingly paint each and every one of the Peacock's feathers with bright and colourful colours. "I am really an artist" he thought to himself, proudly.

"It is done" finally the Crow said to the Peacock. "Now you have a very beautiful and colourful feathers. No one in this jungle can outshine you" he said. The Peacock displayed his feathers proudly, and said "Wow! Now I am the most beautiful bird in this jungle. Thank you dear Crow". 

"Now it is your turn to paint my feathers" the Crow said excitedly. "I want you to paint my feathers as bright as yours, as colourful as yours, and as beautiful as yours". Patiently, the Crow sit on the tree stump and await for the Peacock to paint him. But the Peacock was well known to be a lazy animal. Furthermore, he was holding a grudge against the Crow for calling him silly, again, just now. So he just pretended to carefully applying the paint to the crow's feathers, but in actual fact he was just killing the time. A few hours later, he said triumphantly, "Done". In actual fact, the Peacock just applied black colour to the Crow's feathers. 

The Crow was so excited to see the result that he immediately fly to the river and stopped at a rambutan tree branch. He was so surprised when he looked at the clear water and saw himself as black as a coal. "Ack! Ack! Ack!" he was furious. In the meantime, the Peacock had run away from the place.

That was why a crow always sounded furious when it shouted Ack! Ack! Ack!. He was still angry for being as black as a coal. In the meantime, the peacock was so proud of its feathers that it always showing off to other animals.

~~~~~ The End ~~~~~

Once again, I hope you enjoyed reading this fable.

Other fables that I have written:-

1. The Legend of Mahsuri;   2. The Story of a Mouse Deer and a Crocodile;   3. The Story of How a Python Lost Its Venom;   4. The Story of a Cat and a Tger