Three Secrets - A bird reveals three important principles to a greedy man

A Wise Song-bird reveals three deceptively simple, but important principles that we may already know, but seldom practice!

Once upon a time there was a golden songbird that lived in a beautiful garden. It spent all its days singing the loveliest songs to the honor of its creator and maker and the delight of all the people who heard it.

But the keeper of the garden, who was a foolish and greedy man, coveted the little songster, and one day he made a cunning net in which he snared it. The little bird begged the man to release him and promised to tell him three great secrets if only he would let him go. Now the gardener really was a very greedy man and rubbing his hands eagerly, he released the bird.

Then the songbird told him it's three secrets:

"That he should never believe all that he hears;

Never regret what he has never lost,

And never to throw away that which he has in his keeping."

The gardener was furious when he heard this and said he had known these so-called 'secrets' since he was a little child and shouted that the bird had tricked him. But the songbird quietly replied that if the man had really known these three secrets, or only the last of them, he would never have let him go.

Then the bird said: "I have a most precious jewel weighing over three ounces hidden inside me and whoever possesses that marvelous stone will have every wish granted."

On hearing this the keeper roared like a lion and cursed himself for setting the songster free. But the little bird only added fuel to his rage by explaining that since he weighed no more than half an ounce at most, as anyone with eyes could plainly see, how was it possible that a gem weighing more than three ounces could be hidden within its tiny body?

At that the man tore his hair and lunged at the bird in a towering rage, but the little songbird flew to a nearby branch and added sweetly:

"Since you never had the jewel in your hands you are already regretting what you never lost, and believing what I told you, you threw it away by setting me free."

Then the little songbird told the man to study well these three great secrets and so become as wise as the bird himself!

Reproduced by kind courtesy of occult-mysteries.org
Link: www.occult-mysteries.org/words.html#songbird