The Salting A Bird Tale
Two boys were playing in a field. One of them spotted a bird on the ground and tried to catch it so he could take it home with him. The other boy told him that the way he was going about [catching the bird] was all wrong. He said, “I know an easy way! A friend of mine told me that he catches birds all of the time by just sprinkling a little salt on their tails. Once they get salt on their tails, they can’t fly anymore. Then it is easy to catch them!”
Have you ever seen your friend catch them that way?” inquired the bird-chasing boy.
“Well, I’ve seen all of the birds that he has at home,” replied his friend.
So the boy went home, grabbed the saltshaker from the kitchen table, and enthusiastically set out to pursue the birds. As he was running back outside, he was thinking of al the different ways he would try to get salt on their tails. But every time he got near a bird it would just fly away.
Still, the boy continued chasing after birds with his saltshaker in hand. Each time he hoped to get just enough salt on the tail of a bird to at least slow it down. Each time seemed a little closer than the last, but he still couldn’t salt a tail to save his life! He never would catch a bird.
Nevertheless, the boy chased after those birds his entire life because he believed what his friend said.