The Dove and the Hunter

The deathless sage Markandeya told the Pandavas the tale of the pigeon and the fowler - a story of how the perfect keeping of the law of hospitality, even toward an enemy, transformed a cruel man's heart and lifted two small birds to heaven.

There was once a fowler, a hunter of birds, hard-hearted and cruel, who roamed the forests setting his nets and snares to trap the creatures of the air, killing them or caging them to sell, caring nothing for their suffering. He had spent his whole life in this trade of cruelty, and his heart had grown as hard as his calling. One day he went out into the forest as always, with his net and his cage, hunting birds.