Once there was a lark singing in the forest. The lark stopped the farmer and asked, "What do you have in the box and where are you going?" The farmer replied that he had worms and that he was going to the market to trade them for some feathers. The lark said, "I have many feathers. I will pluck one and give it to you and that will save me looking for worms." The farmer gave the worms to the lark and the lark plucked a feather and gave it in return.
The next day the same thing happened and the day after and on and on until a day came that the lark had no more feathers. Now it couldn't fly and hunt for worms. It started looking ugly and stopped singing and very soon it died.
Lesson: What the lark thought was an easy way to get food turned out to be the tougher way after all। Isn't the same thing true in our lives? Many times we look for the easier way, which really ends up being the tougher way.