In the ancient times, all crows were white as milk. It happened one day long…long time ago….
At dawn the sun god drove his golden chariot across the sky to give light upon our earth.
While he was on his duty and looking down on the earth, he happened to see a beautiful princess walking in her garden.
“Oh! What a beautiful princess she is!” The sun god fell in love with the princess at once.
Therefore the sun god disguised as a young handsome man and went to meet and stay with the princess. Soon he had to go back to his palace in heaven. This made the princess wait for her husband in deep sorrow.
While in heaven, the sun god was thinking to send the princess a bright red ruby as a gift of missing her. He then ordered the white crow be a messenger.
“My white crow, help me deliver this gift bag to my princess.” Then the sun god handed the small silk bag with a precious ruby inside to the white crow.
“Please trust me. I’ll do my best.” The white crow bowed to the sun god, carried the ruby bag in its beak, and flew to the princess’s palace right away.
On the way, there was a very strong aroma of delicious food. The white crow wondered, “Wow! What a wonderful smell!”
When it looked down, there were a couple of bride and groom in their wedding. So many kinds of food for the guests were prepared on the table.
Because of its greediness, the white crow forgot its responsibility for a while. “Oh! I can’t bear it anymore. The food smells so good. OK…Perhaps just take a break to test a little bit.” Then the white crow perched on the tree’s branch and hung the ruby bag over there.
While the white crow was enjoying all foods, a merchant happened to walk under that tree. When that man looked up, “Oh…Who hung a bag up there?”
With curiosity, the merchant went to find a very long stick. He then used it to poke at the bag until it fell down. Suddenly after opening the bag, his both eyes were wide open with delight.
“Wow…lucky me! It’s a precious ruby…and it’s so big. It must be priceless,” said the merchant.
The merchant quickly poured the ruby out of the bag and slipped it into his pocket. Then he picked the cow dung from the ground and put it in the bag instead. After that he returned the bag back on the tree branch.
At the same time, the greedy white crow just finished its full eating. So it prepared to continue the duty. “Oh… I’m stuffed! Now it’s time to deliver the bag to the princess,” said the white crow.
The white crow rapidly flew to get the bag from the tree and went directly to the princess’s garden. It said to the princess, “Your Highness, I got the order from the sun god to bring this gift bag to you.”
The princess was very excited and happy. “Oh! He still thinks of me. Let’s see what’s inside.” When she got the gift bag from the white crow, she was very eager to open it.
Suddenly after seeing what’s inside, the princess’s happy face turned red because of her rage.
“How could the sun god send me this ugly thing? Or he meant to tell me that he was tired of me and wanted to end our relationship,” the princess said angrily.
“Fine…since he’s done this to me, from now on I don’t want to see him anymore.” Then the princess threw that bag away and rushed back to her palace. And she never came out again.
When the sun god knew what happened, he was furious at the white crow. So he cast a fire spell to burn the white crow until its feathers turned black.
Ever since, all crows have been black and are hated by most people. About the sun god’s stolen ruby, it was lost because the merchant happened to drop it in a big deep hole in the wood. When this news spread, so many people tried to search for it but it’s never been found!
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