The Moral of the Story of the Tortoise and the Geese is “Silence is Golden”.
Here is the story.
Once upon a time a tortoise lived in a pond. Two geese lived on the back of the pond.
Once in summer the sun was very hot. So the pond became dry.
The geese wanted to fly away to some other pond. They went to bid good-bye to his friend, the tortoise.
The tortoise said, “I also want to go with you. The pond is dry. I can’t live here anymore.’
The geese said to the tortoise, ‘We can’t take you with us. You have no wings. You cannot fly.’
The tortoise thought for a moment and said, ‘Please wait a bit. I have a good plan.’
Then he went away and came back with a strong stick. The stick was about four feet long.
The tortoise said, ‘I’ll bite the middle of the stick firmly. Then you will take hold of the ends of the stick with your beaks. You can fly away with me through the sky.’
The geese said, ‘That we can do. But if you open your mouth to speak you will fall to the ground and die.’
The tortoise said, ‘I’ll never open my mouth to speak a single word.’
So the geese had to do as he wished. The geese flew over many places. The people below saw this strange sight. They cried aloud, ‘If the tortoise falls down, we will make a good meal of him.’
The tortoise opened its mouth and said, ‘You will eat ashes.’
The tortoise lost his grip on the stick. He fell to the ground and died.