The Vain Jackdaw

There once lived a jackdaw who was deeply unhappy with his appearance. While other birds seemed content with their natural plumage, this jackdaw constantly compared himself to the more beautiful creatures around him and found himself wanting.

“Look at my dull black feathers,” he would complain to himself. “How plain and ordinary I am compared to the magnificent peacocks with their brilliant colors and stunning tail displays!”

One day, while wandering near the peacock enclosure, the jackdaw discovered several beautiful peacock feathers that had been molted and left behind. An idea formed in his mind - if he could not be naturally beautiful, perhaps he could make himself beautiful through other means.

Carefully gathering the gorgeous feathers, the jackdaw spent hours arranging them around his body, tucking them into his wings and attaching them to his tail. When he was finished, he looked at his reflection in a nearby pond and was delighted with the transformation.

“Now I look as magnificent as any peacock!” he declared proudly.

With great confidence, the jackdaw strutted into the peacock garden, hoping to be accepted as one of their kind. But the moment the real peacocks saw him, they immediately recognized the deception. Not only did they strip away the borrowed feathers, but they also drove him away with harsh cries and sharp pecks.

Humiliated and stripped of his borrowed finery, the jackdaw returned to his own kind. But his fellow jackdaws, who had witnessed his foolish attempt at deception, would no longer accept him either.

“You were not content to be one of us,” they said coldly. “You tried to be something you’re not. Now you belong nowhere.”

Moral: It is better to be valued for what you truly are than to be scorned for what you pretend to be. Borrowed plumage does not make a peacock.