They say that once upon a time, a Badshah had a favorite falcon. He always took this falcon with him hunting.
One day he put it on his arm and went falconry. And suddenly he sees a deer running. The Badshah spurred his horse, chased the deer and galloped away. The retinue tried to keep up with the Badshah, but could not keep up with him and lost sight of him.
Meanwhile, the badshah had driven a deer and felt very thirsty. He circled the mountains on horseback for a long time - he kept looking for a spring somewhere. Finally I reached the foot of a high rock and saw water dripping from its top. The Badshah took a bowl out of his bag and began to collect water drop by drop. And so the cup was filled, and the badshah had already raised it to his mouth, when suddenly the falcon hit it with its wing - and all the water spilled.
The Badshah got angry with the falcon and again put the cup under the drops. A little later the cup was filled again, and the badshah had already raised it to his lips, but the falcon again knocked the cup out of his hands and spilled all the water. The badshah got angry, hit the falcon on the ground, and it fell dead.
At that moment the stirrup galloped up, and the badshah told him that he was thirsty. Stremyanny poured water from a goat's skin into a bowl and was about to give it to his master, but he said:
“I want to drink clean, cold water—the kind that flows from a cliff.” Climb up there, scoop up water from the spring and bring it to me. I don't want to wait for the water to fill the bowl drop by drop!
Stremyanny climbed the mountain, got to the spring, and what did he see? A dead snake lies on the edge of a cliff, and its poisonous saliva mixes with water and drops drop by drop from the cliff.
Stremyanny got scared, went down the cliff and reported to the Badshah what he saw; then he poured water from his wineskin into a cup and gave it to the badshah. The Badshah pressed his lips to it, but could not drink - he began to cry, pointed to the dead falcon to the stirrup and cursed his haste.
And then I remembered this incident all my life.
Wise people do nothing without thinking.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru