Buying a moustache bird

I went into a pet shop to buy a moustache bird. I was wearing shorts at the time. A young couple happened to be in the store, and the wife was a real joker. She came up to me and said, "What muscles you have! How I wish I had your thigh muscles!"

Her husband was so embarrassed. She asked, "Are you a good runner?"

I said, "No, I am a very bad runner."

She said, "But you have good, strong muscles."

The husband was embarrassed and he started laughing because she was laughing. Since he was there, I was polite to her.

There was also a taxi driver in the store who was from Stamford. He started telling me that his brother had a cockatiel. The young girl interrupted him to say, "My husband has given me three cages but no birds. Can you tell me what I am going to do with empty cages?

The owner said to the wife, "Why don't you buy a bird?"

She said to the owner, "I want a bird for twenty dollars. More than that I can't afford." The husband didn't say a thing.

Finally I bought my moustache bird. It was from India or Pakistan. The young girl said, "Don't forget to take care of the bird." Then she asked me how many birds I had.

I wasn't sure exactly how many birds I had. Recently Ranjana had told me about eighty-nine, so I bragged and said, "About a hundred."

She said, "You liar!"

I had to hear the word "liar" from her! I didn't argue with her. The taxi driver asked me, "Is it true?"

I said, "I have over eighty at least. I think I have eighty-nine."

I couldn't solve the mystery of why the young girl's husband didn't buy her any birds, just cages. Perhaps he wanted her to buy the birds herself, so afterwards she wouldn't say that she didn't like them.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Salutations, numbers 9-12, Agni Press, 1983
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