In this amusing story, an old woman encounters an eagle for the first time. Perplexed by its unfamiliar appearance, she decides to change it to suit her own ideas of what a bird should look like. Her efforts mirror a common pattern of human thought: altering the unfamiliar to make it acceptable.

A version of this story can be found in the Mathnavi by the renowned Sufi poet Jalaluddin Rumi, who died over 700 years ago. This version is specially presented for children by the author Idries Shah, who, for more than 30 years, collected traditional stories from oral and written sources throughout Central Asia and the Middle East.