Gift Pigeons (A chinese folk tale)

Gift Pigeons In Handan there was a custom of catching the pigeons before New year and gifting them to the prince. The pigeons gave the prince a lot of pleasure , so much that he handsomely awarded each person who gifted him. Someone once asked the prince, what was the explanation for this custom. - As a sign of my good soul I let all these pigeons free at the New Year- answered the prince. - Since your subjects know that you would free the pigeons, they try to catch as many as possible- argued the questioner. –And in this process they kill many pigeons. If you really don’t want to harm the pigeons, you would do better if you forbid your subjects from catching pigeons. If you just want to get them caught so that later you would free them, you good soul cannot correct the immeasurable damage which you cause. The prince agreed with him. Translated from Hungarian by me