P. V. Ramaswami Raju

The Peacock and the Crow

A peacock once stood before a mirror with his plumes spread, and said to it, "How grateful I am to you! But for you, I should not know how beautiful I am."

A crow, who heard this, said, "Sir Peacock, will the mirror tell me what I am like?"

"You are such an ugly thing, and yet you wish that a fine gentleman like the mirror should take the trouble of telling you how you look!"

But the crow went before the mirror, and found out what he was like. So he said, "Be it a peacock or be it a crow, a mirror both doth truly show. Yet how many there are that misrepresent the character of the good!"