"The Tattle-Tale Parrot."

From Book of Sandebar.

Summary: A man trains his parrot to tell him everything his wife does when he has gone. The wife entertains her lover and the parrot tells the husband all about it. He orders his wife out of the house. The wife blames the maid for telling on her, but the maid says the parrot did it.

That night the wife covers the bird in his cage and provides sound effects and flashing lights to simulate a thunderstorm. When the husband awakens in the morning, he asks what happened during the night. The parrot says he couldn’t see because of the thunderstorm. Since there had been no thunderstorm, the husband accuses the parrot of lying, kills the parrot, begs his wife’s forgiveness, and they lived happily ever after.

Comment: Translated into Spanish from the Arabic in 1253. RayS.

Spanish Stories and Tales. Ed. By Harriet de Onís. The Pocket Library, 1956. Pp. 94-99.