Once upon a time, there was a jungle near the kingdom of Raja Shantanu. In the jungle, on one tree, the crow’s king and queen used to live. They used to be a very happy couple. Wherever they went, they used to go together. They also used to eat and drink together.

Once, they were both flying above Raja Shantanu’s Palace. At that time, the food for His Majesty was being made. Colorful, delicious food was being placed on their plates.

“Oh wow!! My queen, see how delicious that food looks,”, said the crow to his wife.

“Yes, I am watching. But what can we do? We cannot do anything other than watch this tasty food. Look how tasty that fried fish looks! It will be fun eating that,” the crow’s wife said while looking at the fish plate.

“That’s true. But what good is it to gaze upon something we cannot consume?”

“Yes, you are right, dear. How stupid we are. We are so unlucky that we cannot even get one small thing.”

Crow observed his wife, who was deeply contemplating something. He knew exactly what his wife was feeling. But what could he do? He sighed helplessly.

The couple was preparing to go food hunting the following day.

The crow then exclaimed, “Dear! We should consume the fried fish from the palace that we observed yesterday.”

“My king, why are you fretting over it? We should tell this to our general.”

Hearing his wife crow, he questioned why he was still worrying about it from the previous evening. But didn’t even think that his soldiers could do it easily. He was so thrilled that he immediately called the general.

The general bowed and replied, “Yes, your majesty, you called me.”

“See here, general, last night we saw very delicious food in the palace.”, Crow said.

“Then what would you like, sir?”

“We wish to have that meal.”

The general responded, “Your wish will be completed soon, my lord; please do not worry; I will personally go to bring the meal,” after being informed of this. By declaring that this general took flight with eight soldiers and headed for Raja Shantanu’s Palace.

The general entered the palace and looked around.

“You all go sit on the kitchen roof”, the general ordered his soldiers.

The general was contemplating strategy as he sat with his soldiers.

“Yes, then pay attention, my brave soldiers; nobody will give us this food, even if we beg for it. Remember that we are here to get food for the king. We will only get it if we snatch it, but we cannot do that as the king’s army is very powerful. His soldiers are guarding the kitchen. And everyone knows how much they hate us crows. People are alarmed when they see our faces.”

The general then made an effort to grab the attention of the soldiers serving under the king. The cook noticed the general at the same time. He left the food and went after him. The other eight soldiers were prepared to do their jobs as well. All the crows seized every morsel they could when the dinner plate fell to the ground. All this happened so fast that people near the plate were just standing there like statues.

The general, on the other hand, grew weary while flying, but he was pleased that his plan had succeeded. He realized he could not get out of the palace. He let the cook and the soldiers catch him because he did not want to end up dead. Crow’s general was brought to the king by the cook.

“Look, Lord, I have brought the sinner whose sin no one can pardon.”

“What sin?”, asked the king

“This crow, my lord, is the sinner.”

“A crow and a sinner?”

“My lord does not consider him to be a common crow; he committed a serious sin.”

“What crime did he commit?”

“He dirtied your meal and let his friends eat it. What could possibly be a greater sin than that?”

“What did you just do, Crow?”

“Your majesty, I am the crows’ general. Our king wanted to eat the food prepared for you. I did all this to complete his wish. I am prepared to pay a price for my wrongdoing.

“Oh wow! General, you have great courage! You did not even give thought to your life in order to fulfill your king’s wish.”

The crow general remarked, “My king, every soldier’s objective is to fulfill his duty.”

“Excellent! I am so glad I got to meet you, Crow General. I am glad to let you go because I respect your courage.”

King’s statement stunned everyone in the room. As soon as Crow General was released, he took off in a flight.