The Story of the Wooden Rooster

Many years ago there lived a King who had a magnificent rooster. This rooster was young, strong, amazingly quick, strikingly handsome and the envy of the chicken yard.

The King decided that he wanted to test his rooster in a fight with other roosters as was common in those days. So the King sent out a message to the top Rooster Trainer in all the land inviting him to come to his castle.

When the Trainer arrived the King asked him if he would train his rooster. The Trainer said that he would but under one condition that the King fight the rooster only when the Trainer said he was ready and not before. The King agreed and the Trainer took the rooster with him and left.

A while later the King sent a message to the Trainer inquiring if his rooster was ready to fight. The Trainer sent a message back to the King indicating that “no” he was not ready, “he needed more training.” So the King waited and after a while he became anxious again and sent another message to the Trainer inquiring if his rooster was ready. The Trainer responded again with “no” he was not ready “he needed more training” and would the King please wait. So the King waited. But after a while the King couldn't bear to wait any longer and again sent a message to the Trainer inquiring as to whether or not his rooster was ready. This time the Trainer replied that “yes” his rooster was ready.

So the King retrieved his rooster and took him to a Kingdom-wide Cock Fight where all the best fighting roosters in the kingdom were gathering for one big fight. The King placed his rooster in the ring and stepped back expecting him to begin beating up on all the other roosters. But instead of attacking the other roosters the King's rooster walked over to the center of the ring and stood perfectly still. He was so still in fact that he gave the impression that he was not real at all but made of wood.

The other roosters glanced at the King's rooster but his stillness seemed out of place to them and threw them off guard. They were not afraid of him, but neither could they bring themselves to attack him. After a while the stillness and peacefulness of the King's rooster began to have a calming effect on all the other roosters and because deep inside at their very core they preferred peace to war one by one their movements slowed and soon all fighting ceased.

Shortly after this the King's Rooster was declared the winner not because he had the skill to beat up all the other roosters but because through his inner strength he had brought peace and harmony to all who were near.