The Palace and the Pigeons

By Tzvi Freeman


Once there was a king whose palace had been ransacked by the wild hordes. For the wood and stone of the palace he had no tears, but for the crown jewels, passed down for many generations, for this there was no consolation.

The king gathered his wise men, but none could give counsel. The jewels had been spread by those barbarian hordes throughout the land and throughout many other lands, the most precious of them taken across the seas to the farthest reaches of the globe. But the king had a daughter very dear to him, and in her wisdom she saw what needed to be done.

So the king and his daughter trained many pigeons to return to the palace, to recognize the crown jewels and carry them back on their journey. Each day they would release the pigeons in the pastures about the palace and some would discover the jewels scattered about and return them to their home. And the king was glad and smiled to his daughter.

Then the king's daughter sent them further away, and again they returned, carrying a few more of the jewels her father had lost. As far away as they were sent, they hastily returned.

But the most valuable jewels, those in the most distant lands and most hidden places, those jewels had not yet been recovered. The pigeons did not venture far enough to find them--they were too eager to return home.

The king's daughter knew what must be done, but she could not tell her father, for it was too hard, too dangerous, too awful. But he looked in her eyes and he knew. And so he destroyed his palace once again, razing it to the ground, removing its every trace. When the pigeons attempted to return, they found nothing, no more than an empty pasture with scattered stones and smoldering wood. They were hungry for their food and sick for their home.

Until the most adventurous of the pigeons traveled far abroad and found other palaces, and in those palaces they found hidden the king's most precious jewels, and gathered them and polished them and kept them in their wings. And at night they cried, for they knew this was not their home.

And now has come the time for them to all return.



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