Once on a one beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest. Many kinds of trees and plants grew there. As the rose looked around, a pine tree nearby said - "What a beautiful flower. I wish I were that lovely." Another tree said - "Dear pine, Do not be sad, we can not have everything."

The rose turned its head and remarked - "It seems that I am the most beautiful plant in this forest."
A sunflower raised its yellow head and said - "Do you say that in this forest there are not many beautiful plants? It is not so, there are many and you are only one of them."
The red rose replied - "I thought since everyone was looking at me and admiring me, I was the only beautiful plant in this forest.
Then as the rose looked round, he saw a cactus plant, so he said - "Look at that ugly plant, full of thorns."
The pine tree said - "Red rose, What kind of talk is this Who can say what beauty is? You have thorns too."

The proud red rose looked angrily at the pine and said - "I thought you had good taste! You do not know at all what beauty is. You can not compare my thorns to that of the cactus."

What a proud flower, thought the trees. The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus, but it could not move. As the days passed, the red rose would always look at the cactus and say insulting things, like, "This plant is useless, how sorry I am to be his neighbor." etc etc. The cactus never got upset and he even tried to advise the rose, saying - "We weren't created without a purpose."

Spring season passed, and the weather became very warm. Life became difficult in the forest, as the plants and animals needed water and no rain fell. The red rose began to wilt. One day the rose saw sparrows stick their beaks into the cactus and then fly away, refreshed. This was puzzling him, so he asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that the birds were getting water from the cactus. "Does it not hurt when they make holes in the cactus plant?" asked the rose.

"Yes, sure, but the cactus does not like to see any birds suffer." replied the pine.
The rose opened its eyes in wonder and said - "The cactus has water?"
"Yes you can also drink from it."
The sparrow can bring water to you if you ask the cactus for a drink.

The red rose felt too ashamed of his past words and behavior to ask for water from the cactus, but then he finally did ask the cactus for some water. The cactus kindly agreed and the birds filled their beaks with water and watered the rose's roots. The rose again got life and started smiling. Thus the rose learned a lesson and never judged anyone by their appearance again.