A horse was cropping grass  monotonously. A flying parrot circle and asked for a few minutes rest in return for news of far away to while the time.  The horse readily agreed.  And so the parrot landed on the horse’s back and began to chatter.

The chatter had some resemblance to the chatter of the horse’s own young, and the parrot’s stock of phrases was new to the horse, so the parrot’s squawkings were not unpleasing.

Two more birds of the flock flew by and landed on the horse’s back.  They also began to talk.  The birds sometimes disputed with each other, loudly and unintelligently.  But mostly they repeated each other’s phrase, vying to see who could squawk the loudest.  They did not take turns.

As the horse realized the true nature of the conversation, and saw that anything he himself said was mostly ignored, or taken up and repeated in a highly distorted form, the parrots’ company began to pall on him. He asked them to leave.

The parrots began to discuss the request, pro and con, with a liberal intermixture of their prior set of stock phrases.  The noise only increased.

The increased noise attracted other members of the flock, who added their own phrases and volume to the cacophony.

The horse had to whinny loudly, to the point of screaming, to repeat his request that the parrots leave.  At this time of day, he explained, he was accustomed to seek out his family to speak to them, which he could not do with this clamor of noise.

At this, some of the birds took it on themselves to fly back and forth to his friends and family to pass messages and to return with descriptions of how they were doing.  Others did the same, but to share the same phrases that the horse was enduring, so that his friends and family could be privy to the conversation he was also experienced.  With these two efforts, the parrots considered that his need for conversation with his family was fully satisfied.

By now the horse was covered with a seething mass of birds, all calling loudly and struggling with each other for space next to his ear.

The horse cried out for peace one last time, but could not be heard.

At last, the horse was forced to plunge into a deep pool and swim underwater.  Only on emerging on the other side did the horse find surcease.

Moral:  The “conversation” is din.  Better too little distraction than too much.