Parrot

This same monk went to master Bawan and said: “Tell me of the monk Mudána, for I am new to the Temple and have never heard of him, except that he was banished for laziness.”

Bawan replied: “Mudána wished to be a great developer. He asked questions of the masters, studied the code of his peers, and insisted that the team leads review his work.”

The monk said: “If all this is true, then surely Mudána was not lazy.”

Bawan rapped the monk’s head with his staff. “Eku had a parrot that asked each visitor if Patterns and Antipatterns were one and the same, yet the only answer the parrot wanted was a cracker. The bird memorized random bits of bibble-babble merely to repeat the sounds. And it insisted on performing for Eku because she would sometimes stroke its head.”

The monk rubbed his head, saying: “Yet you said that Mudána wished to be a great developer!”

Bawan replied: “Eku’s parrot wished to be like its master. Did it yearn to possess Eku’s wisdom... or her ability to open the cabinet where the crackers were kept?”