Why generosity?

This is from Panchatantra.

An ant was moving by a stream of water and had suddenly fallen into water by the sudden heavy blow of wind. There is no time to respond or react. It was a struggle even to breathe, it tried its best to survive and yet it couldn't make any way out but it didn't loose hope. This was all noticed by a bird who is on the branch of the tree which is near by the water stream. Its heart poured with kindness after noticing the helpless attempts of the little ant. The bird with out wasting time dropped a leaflet for that to fall exactly before the ant. The little ant got itself fixed on to the leaf and the bird picked the leaf back from the river to the land. It all took a bit of generosity for the bird but in fact it saved the life of the ant. Miraculous!! Isn't it?

A few days passed by and one day the bird was resting on the branch of a tree in the nearby woods. This was noticed by a cruel hunter and he aimed at the bird with his catapult. He was almost to shoot the bird and there aren't any seconds to count. The little ant swiftly had bitten the leg of the hunter as hardly as it can stretching all its vigor. Alas! The shot missed the hit and the bird woke up to this disturbance and had flown away from the tree with out being shot by the hunter. How could all this happen? Is the ant that big enough to fight with the hunter?

This is a lesson of treasure for all of us to realize the power of generosity. It is the gratitude of the ant to the generosity of the bird that finally saved the life of the bird.

May this bird & ant story inspire all of us to be rightfully generous...