A crow, lazy and cunning, was building its nest and found it lazy to gather dry leaves and twigs from different places to build its nest. As it flew around it saw an eagle's nest with lots of dry grass and twigs under the eggs, and the eagle away from its nest. The sight of so many dry leaves all in one place, tempted the crow to steal them from the nest, despite the inherent risk of the eagle returning to its nest anytime. Using the eagle's absence to its advantage, the crow flew to the nest and was about to take all the dry leaves for itself, when the eagle arrived and settled in its nest. The eagle asked the crow what it was doing near its nest. The crow taken aback by the sudden arrival of the eagle, quickly made-up a story and said, “I was looking after your nest as it was unguarded"
"Why" asked the eagle.
The crow said, " I was building my own nest nearby, and happened to see your eggs unguarded in the nest and thought i should look after it till your return." The unsuspecting eagle took the crow's words at face value and picked a few dry leaves from its nest and gave it to the crow as a sign of gratitude. As the crow took the leaves and flew to its place it murmured "only a few leaves?, must be a shameless selfish eagle."