The story of the parrot in Mevlana's Masnavi indicates that there is a road that connects hearts to each other and that closeness and sympathy can be established on this road. The story is as follows: One of the beloved merchants of the region goes on a trip to India and before he leaves, he turns to his parrot in the cage, "O my bird, what should I bring you when I come?" he asks. The only dream of a parrot imprisoned in a cage is to be free, “It is enough to tell the parrots there about me. I feed him in cage, I bring his greetings,” the parrot says.
The trader finally arrives in India after a journey that lasts for days, and after finishing his business, he wanders around the city, trying to enjoy the trip. One morning, while walking on the street, his eyes catch on a few parrots, he immediately goes to them and says, "I am a person living in such and such a country, I came here for my commercial work, I have a parrot that I keep at home, he greets you." Before the trader could finish his words, one of the parrots began to tremble, gasps, it falls and dies. The trader regrets what he has said, and begins to complain that what I did, I wish I hadn't told him, that I caused the death of that poor bird. The trader cannot get rid of the effect of the event, blames himself and thinks that this bird must be a relative of my parrot.
The merchant finishes his job and returns to his hometown and is still under the influence of that event. He does not even want to share what he witnessed, but as soon as the owner of the parrot entered, “Did you see the parrots I mentioned, did you say hi?” the parrot asks. A gloom fills the merchant’s spirit and my dear bird he says, “Sorry but it would be better if I don't tell.” When the parrot persists, the merchant reluctantly tells the story. “As you said, I saw your friend parrots and I said your greetings to them. But one of them couldn't stand it, started to tremble, then fell to the ground and remained motionless and died,” the merchant said. Hearing these expressions pronounced by the owner, the parrot begins to tremble, then remains motionless and dies. The man regrets what he said and starts beating himself about ‘my beautiful bird what happened to you, what have I done’ and takes the dead parrot from the cage and leaves it in front of the window. But an interesting situation happens and the parrot comes to life and lands on a branch of a tree. The man tries to understand what is going on and says “what is this, how did you learn this trick?” The free parrot says, “dear sir, the bird you saw in India understood my situation when he greeted me and sent me the message, If you want to get rid of it by pretending to be dead, pretend to be dead. I used this tactic and got rid of the cage.”
The story of the parrot sums up the importance of empathy, sympathy, and experiences passed down from generation to generation, the lack of which we complain about today.