In the evening, when the birds returned, they would see that their eggs and chicks had been eaten by the snake. This made them very sad. But they had no choice. Every morning, they had to leave to find food and water, or else their babies would starve. If they stayed, the babies would die of hunger. If they left, the snake would eat them.

Troubled by this, the birds decided on a solution—they would leave this tree and build their nests elsewhere. Thinking this, they approached an old owl who also lived in the same tree.

The birds said to the owl, “We are planning to leave this tree and go somewhere else.”
The owl replied, “Yes, yes, let’s all leave. If trouble arises at another tree, we’ll leave that one too and keep searching for new shelter.”
The birds said, “But what else can we do?”

The owl replied, “We shouldn’t leave our home. Instead, we must find a way to end the source of our pain.”
The birds asked, “That snake is so big, and we are such small birds—what can we possibly do to it?”

The owl said, “Even if we are small, we can use wit and strategy. With cleverness, we can drive that snake away.”
The birds asked, “But how?”

The owl said, “Wait till tomorrow morning.”

The next morning, the queen of that nearby village came to the river with her companions to bathe. Before entering the river, the queen removed her jewelry and placed it on the bank. Among her jewelry was a very bright, shiny necklace.

The owl told one of the birds to fly down, pick up the necklace, and drop it into the snake’s burrow. The bird did just that—it picked up the shiny necklace and dropped it into the snake’s burrow.

When the queen finished her bath and returned to put on her jewelry, she found everything there except the necklace. She looked everywhere but couldn’t find it, so she called her guards and ordered them to find the necklace.

As the guards searched, they noticed a sparkle coming from the snake’s burrow beneath the tree. When they approached to retrieve it, the snake hissed and lunged at them. Seeing the snake inside, the guards got scared. They thought, “If we reach in, the snake might bite and kill us.”

So, they picked up their weapons and began attacking the burrow. Frightened by the attack, the snake slithered away.

That evening, once the snake was gone, the guards reached in and retrieved the necklace. After recovering it, they thought, “If we leave this burrow as it is, the snake may return.” So they dug up the surrounding earth, destroyed the burrow, and filled the hole with soil.

Later, the snake returned to find its home destroyed. It had no place to stay and had to go in search of a new burrow elsewhere.

After the snake left, the birds were overjoyed. They realized they no longer needed to leave their home and could live peacefully in their old nests on the same tree.

Moral of the Story:
Wisdom is more powerful than strength.