In a beautiful green forest lived many doves. Every morning they flew out together in search of food. Every evening they returned to the beautiful forest and sat together. The king Dove was the wisest of them all. He salved everyone’s problems.

One day they kept flying for miles but found nothing to eat. They were hungry and tried. A young dove asked the king. `You majesty, it’s been a hard day. Shall we go hungry today?’

`Don’t lose heart; let us try a little more. We must not give up so fast,’ suggested the king Dove. The young doves carried on. The older ones followed. Suddenly one dove turned back and spoke to others. `At last, we are lucky. I can see lots of grains down there. We will eat to our fill now.’

All the doves started rushing down towards the scattered grains. `Wait’ shouted the king Dove. `To me it seems like a strike of a hunter. Who else can scatter that much rice at one spot?

But the doves were too hungry to obey. They could not resist the sight of the rice. Soon they were all eating the rains. After a while they realized their mistake. They were all caught in a hunter’s net. But now it was too late.

`What shall we do now? The hunter will soon come and take us away, oh!’

`Why didn’t we obey our wise king?’ the young doves were saying. They were very scared and upset.

`O, king of doves, please do something,’ said some doves.

`O, wise king, please save us,’ said the rest.

`Let me think of a plan,’ said the king.

All the doves waited eagerly.

`Now listen to me, all of you. Let us put our strength together and fly away with the net. If we all try together we can carry the net with us,’ suggested the king dove. The plan succeeded. The doves carrying the net along flew into the sky.

`Do you all see that white temple there?’

`Let us get down there. A rat, who is a friend of mine, lives there. He will help us out,’ said the king Dove.

The doves agreed happily. They alighted near the temple. The rat soon came out and nibbled the net with his sharp teeth.

All the doves were free once again. They had learnt a lesson.

They were all wiser than before.