Once upon a time there lived a hornbill who was the king of all the birds in a forest. He was big in size and very powerful and he proclaimed himself as the king of the birds. After this, he made all the birds work for him and lived happily. He was filled with pride and would always be ready to compete and fight with anyone. Many birds tried to fight and defeat him, but they all failed miserably.
But there came a point of time where the birds decided that enough was enough and they wanted to defeat the evil tyrant by hook or crook. So all the birds met at a secluded spot where the hornbill could not find them. They had a long discussion with the owl being in charge of them and at the end, they elected the bulbul as their next queen. After this they made a plan and the owl took the woodpecker to a big tree. He showed the woodpecker a particular branch and told him to peck on it until it would fall with just a push. The woodpecker then began his work as the owl flew away to meet the hornbill.
The hornbill was perched atop his tree majestically, when the owl came to see him. He then told him that the bulbul had challenged him to a competition for the throne. The hornbill’s ego was now bruised as he knew that a female bulbul had challenged him to a competition. With all his pride, he said that he accepted the challenge and went with the owl to the tree where the competition was said to take place.
The owl told the hornbill that the competition was to see who could break the branch the fastest and strategically, the owl had taken him to the strongest branch in the tree. The hornbill started to peck at the branch slowly and steadily, and the branch began to crack a little, but as time went by, the hornbill struggled and started to peck angrily at the branch, but it never broke. Finally, the owl intervened and said that his time was up. Then the owl went to the bulbul and told her to start. But, the branch on which the bulbul was sitting, was the one weakened by the woodpecker. The bulbul gave 2 pecks and upon the second peck, the branch came crashing down and she was proclaimed as the winner.
The hornbill could not tolerate this defeat and in shame, he flew away from there, never to return again. The birds happily proclaimed the bulbul as their new queen and as they all enjoyed themselves, the owl watched them from a distance and knew that they would all live happily ever after.
Moral - One must not be overconfident or force one’s choice upon others.