A finch was flying around town one day and spotted a sparrow sitting in a cage just inside of an open window. Now, this finch was a bright bird and just happened to know how to handle such cages. She flew up to the cage and opened the latch with a flourish saying,
"I have rescued you, sir sparrow, you can fly freely to your heart's desire and explore what this wonderful world has to offer you."
Instead of thanking him profusely, as the finch expected, the sparrow shrank to the back of the cage, paralyzed with fear at the mere thought of leaving his familiar surroundings.
"Go away! The outside world is dangerous... I will die if I free myself!" He said.
The finch looked exasperatedly at the sparrow and spent many minutes trying to convince him why it was right that animals were supposed to be free, but the sparrow would not budge. Finally the finch gave up and left.
The finch was not ready to admit defeat. She pondered the situation for many days, struggling to imagine and understand why a bird would not want to be free. One day an idea struck her which she decided to try.
She flew back to the cage with the sparrow and once again found the window open. When the sparrow saw her, he shrank back in fear as before.
"Don't be afraid," said the Finch, "I just want to talk to you for a while."
The finch then spent the next several minutes describing the wonders of the outside world: what it was like to fly above the treetops on a warm spring day, how it felt to complete a nest built with her own beak, and many other bird wonders that we can only begin to speculate at. When she had finished, the sparrow's eyes were wide with all that he had taken in, but he still said,
"That all sounds wonderful, but I still think it is much too dangerous out there for me to try."
The finch smiled, as much as finches can smile, and said "I understand. Can I come back and talk to you some more tomorrow?"
The sparrow was more than happy to have someone to share conversation with for a change so he agreed. The next day the finch came back to the cage, but this time she brought some rare seeds (bird delicacies) with her. As she landed on the rim of the cage, she set the seeds down next to her.
"What is that?" asked the sparrow.
"These are some rare seeds I found, but I can't possibly eat them all and I have no one to share them with." the finch said sorrowfully as she began to nibble at a few of the seeds.
"Are they good?" asked the sparrow, edging closer to where the finch was standing outside the cage.
"Magnificent" replied the finch. "Would you like some?"
"If you have enough... can you put a few inside the cage for me?"
"I'm afraid not. These are so good I just can't stop." But even as she said this, the finch deftly swung her beak to open the cage. "You just have to take one step outside of the cage and you can have all the seeds you want. You can go right back in after, I won't stop you."
The sparrow slowly edged closer to the opening in the cage and hesitantly took a step out. He grabbed a few seeds and quickly hopped back inside. The finch just smiled to herself again before finishing the seeds and leaving.
Over the next few weeks the finch was gradually able to convince the sparrow to take greater and greater actions outside of his cage. She started small by asking him to help her spot something from the window, or having the sparrow help her find some soft material inside the house for a nest.
The finch took many persuasive angles for each of these steps, always keeping in mind the fear the sparrow had always had for the outside world. She eventually began to teach sparrow survival skills, including showing him how to open his own cage.
One day, about a month later, the finch flew to the window to meet the her friend for the final leg of a long nest gathering expedition. When the finch reached the familiar window sill, she was astonished to see the cage door open and the sparrow gone. At first she was worried, but then she saw a small piece of paper laying at the bottom of the cage. It simply said "You've shown me what freedom means. Thank you." Again, the finch smiled.
