There was once a sage who had a single student, and they lived at the edge of a small village. From time to time people of the village came to the sage to ask advice or to seek his blessing, and he always did whatever he could for them. But the student felt that the villagers did not give enough value to the sage.

“They do not listen to your wisdom,” he told his teacher. “You give them advice but they never change. Why do you waste your time with them?”

The teacher said, “Listen to this story. There was a man who was thrown in prison, and left there for many years. He sat in his cell for ten, fifteen, perhaps twenty years. And then one day, he was released. And as he staggered into the sunlight, the jailer gave him a few coins, out of charity.

“The man walked through the town like someone in a dream until he came to a shop where there were birds for sale. He looked at the birds for a moment, and then used all his coins to buy as many of the birds as he could. And then, one by one, he opened the doors of their cages and let them fly free.

“The shopkeeper was astonished. ‘Why are you doing this?’ he asked. ‘You used all your money to buy these birds, and now you let them fly free?’

“And the man replied, ‘I do it because I know what captivity is, and how precious a thing is freedom.'”

Then the teacher looked at the student and said, “I talk to the villagers because I know what captivity is, and how precious freedom is.”