Once upon a time that was no time there was a man who had one son. This man used to go out into the forest all day, and catch birds for sale to the first comer. At last, however, the father died and the son was left all alone. Now he did not know what had been his fathers profession, but while he was searching all about the floor he came upon the fowling-snare. So he took it, went out into the forest, and set the snare on a tree. At that moment a crow flew down upon the tree, but as the snare was cunningly laid the poor bird was caught. The youth climbed up after it, but when he had got hold of the bird, the crow began begging him to let her go, promising to give him in exchange something more beautiful and more precious than herself. The crow begged and prayed till at last he let her go free, and again he set the snare in the tree and sat down at the foot of it to wait. Presently another bird came flying up, and flew right into the snare. The youth climbed up the tree again to bring it down, but when he saw it he was full of amazement, for such a beautiful thing he had never seen in the forest before.
While he was still gazing at it and chuckling, the crow again appeared to him and said: “Take that bird to the Padishah, and he will buy it from thee.” So the youth took away the bird, put it in a cage, and carried it to the palace. When the Padishah saw the beautiful little creature he was filled with joy, and gave the youth so much money for it that he did not know what to do with it all. But the bird they placed in a golden cage, and the Padishah had his joy of it day and night.
Now the Padishah had a favourite who was grievously jealous of the good fortune of the youth who had brought the bird, and kept cudgelling his brains how he could get him beneath his feet. At last he hit upon a plan, and going in to the Padishah one day he said: “How happy that bird would be if only he had an ivory palace to dwell in!”
“Yes,” replied the Padishah, “but whence could I get enough ivory to make him a palace?”
“He who brought the bird hither,” said the favourite, “will certainly be able to find the ivory.”
So the Padishah sent for the little fowler, and bade him make an ivory palace for the bird there and then. “I know thou canst get the ivory,” said the Padishah.
“Alas, my lord Padishah!” lamented the youth, “whence am I to get all this ivory from?”
“That is thy business,” replied the Padishah. “Thou mayest search for it for forty days, but if it is not here by that time thy head shall be where now thy feet are.”
The youth was sore troubled, and while he was still pondering in his mind which road he should take, the crow came flying up to him, and asked him what he was grieving about so much. Then the youth told her what a great trouble that one little bird had brought down upon his head.
“Why this is nothing at all to fret about,” said the crow; “but go to the Padishah, and ask him for forty wagon-loads of wine!” So the youth returned to the palace, got all that quantity of wine, and as he was coming back with the cars, the crow flew up and said: “Hard by is a forest, on the border of which are forty large trenches, and as many elephants as there are in the wide world come to drink out of these trenches. Go now and fill them with wine instead of water. The elephants will thus get drunk and tumble down, and thou wilt be able to pull out their teeth and take them to the Padishah.”