It is told in the Panchatantra, a great storehouse of wisdom for those who possess a key to enter it, that once upon a time there was a bird with two heads.

One day, as this unusual bird was flying in the sky, one head spotted a ripe fruit lying on the ground. In a moment the bird was there beside it, and the first head began to eat it. It was delicious! Greedily, the first head began to swallow the whole fruit, but the second head objected. “Why are you being so selfish?” it protested. “You and I are equals – I should have a share of this delicacy, too!”

“Why are you complaining?” the first head answered. “We are two heads, but we have a single stomach. “What one eats nourishes us both.” And with that, he finished the last morsel of the sweet fruit.

But the second head still felt offended, and resolved, when it was possible, to get its fair share of anything new.

Some time later, as this strange bird wa flying through the sky, the second head spotted a tree below completely covered with fruit. In an instant, the bird was perched in the tree, and the second head was preparing to swallow one of the fruits whole.

“Stop,” shouted the first head. “You don’t know what you are doing! This fruit is not good to eat, it is deadly poison!”

“You are being selfish again – you are only trying to stop me from having my fair share,” said the second head, “but it won’t work. I saw this first, and I will eat it.”

“But you will kill us both,” pleaded the first head. “Please, do not eat it!”

“You cannot prevent me from enjoying what I have found,” retorted the second head. “I found it, and I shall eat it!”

And so it did – and soon both heads were no more.