Children's Corner

Choose Your Friends

There was once an Enggang bird who lived at the edge of a forest, beside a fruit farmer’s orchard. Everyday the Enggang would fly into the forest to search for wild fruits and berries.

One day, the Enggang saw Crows eating from the nearby fruit orchard. Being attracted by how much the Crows were enjoying their easy food with little effort, the Enggang decided to come closer to the group of Crows.

At the outskirts of the fruit orchard, the fruit farmer was infuriated and upset with his loss of fruits.

The farmer said to himself:

“I must do something about this!”

So the next day, the farmer decided to set a trap in his fruit orchard. He was very careful in placing the trap so that none of the birds knew about it!

In the afternoon, the Crows came again. The Enggang also came later. The Enggang did not participate in eating the farm’s fruits but sat very near to them.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound:

“Snap!”

A giant net flew over all of the birds’ heads and all of them were caught in the trap. The Crows and the Enggang were all caught.

After getting caught, all the Crows felt guilty and did not say anything. However, the Enggang tried to explain to the farmer:

"Mr. Farmer, as you can see, I don’t belong in this group. I am bigger and more colourful than the rest. I eat wild fruits and berries from the forest. I did not steal from your orchard. Please free me!"

The farmer replied:

"I can clearly see that you look very different to the rest. I also cannot imagine how you have ended in my fruit orchard. However, since I caught you along with these other thieves, you will be treated just like how I will treat them after this!”

So dear children:

What can we learn from this story?

From this story, we learn that we are judged by the friends we hang around with. Even if we are good, but if we hang around with bad company, other people will judge us by looking at our company.

We must therefore be careful of choosing our friends. Also, we must always make an honest effort in everything we do.