A lush green garden full of pines and many varieties of flowers was home to a small colony of robins.
Each robin family lived in a separate nest along with its young ones.
A ferocious cat also lived in the garden. The cat was always on the hunt for the weak robins.
The robins were aware of this threat. So, they formed an arrangement to keep the cat away.
Every day, an adult robin, as per the arrangement, would look out for the cat and raise an alarm if the cat came for an attack.
All the robins stuck to this agreement and did their duty as per their turn.
There was, however, one robin who did not believe in the arrangement. He made fun of all the other robins. But he was afraid of the cat.
The robin had a black dot on his tail and was called Black Robin.
“This cat never wants to attack us. We are just wasting our time. We should relax and enjoy our life,” the robin would tell the colony.
The cat was never able to attack as the birds maintained a strict vigil.
The other robins never paid heed to the Black Robin. When his turn came to keep vigil, he would sleep inside his nest and ask an old robin to fill in for him out of the cat’s fear.
“The old bird will take care of it,” Black Robin would tell his two young ones, with a laugh.
Life went on like this in the colony.
One spring, it rained cats and dogs for many days. Now, it was Black Robin’s turn for the vigil.
“The old bird will take care of it,” he repeated to his family.
But the old bird had gotten sick with all the rain and cold. He couldn’t leave the nest. There was no one to watch out for the cat. Sensing an opportunity, the cat attacked.
The cat was near to Black Robin’s nest. He leapt forward and ate them all.
The family screamed but it was too late. On hearing the shrieking and screaming, the other families made good their escape.
