Once upon a time, in Persia there lived a handsome young man called Sasha, who was the Ruler, and greatly loved by all. Sasha had only one enemy, Kashenor, a cruel wicked wizard whose desire was to put his own son Mizrah on Sasha's throne. Sasha loved to collect ancient precious objects, and he always granted an audience to any passing merchants. One day, Kashenor, disguised as a merchant, was taken by Mansor, the Chief Minister, before Sasha. The Ruler bought everything the merchant offered him, but he also asked what was inside a small drawer in an antique box.
"I really don't know myself," replied Kashenor, pulling out of the drawer an old roll of paper written in a long-forgotten language, together with a tobacco jar full of black powder. "I'll give it to you as a present," he told the Ruler. Sasha wanted to know what the writing meant, so he gave the paper to his wise men, and a few days later, they told him what it said: "The man that reads these words will acquire the power to turn himself into an animal, any animal he likes, and to know its language. All he must do is to sniff the black powder and say the word MUTABOR. To turn back to a man again, he must bow three times to the east and repeat the word!" But the roll of paper also contained a warning. It told the reader he must never laugh when in his animal shape, for he would then forget the magic word forever.
"Did you hear that, Mansor!" exclaimed the Ruler. "We can turn into animals! Shall we do it?" "Sire, I'll do whatever you want me to," replied the Chief Minister with a low bow. "Good! Then we'll try it tomorrow!" At dawn next day, the Ruler and his Minister left the palace, and when they were well out of sight, Sasha took the tobacco jar from his pocket.
"What animal shall we choose?" he asked the Minister. Now Mansor had no idea, till he noticed a stork glide past.
"Storks!" he cried. "Let's become storks!" Sasha sniffed the powder and together the two said the word MUTABOR. Suddenly, their legs shriveled into long thin limbs and their clothes became snowy white feathers, covering their whole bodies. All trace of the Ruler and his Chief Minister simply vanished. The two storks gaped at each other in astonishment. They flapped their wings and discovered they knew how to fly. At first, they were awkward, but soon became quite good at it.
"Doesn't the ground look so different from the air? Let's go and find other storks," suggested Sasha cheerfully, so they headed towards a river estuary. What a lot of bird things they learned on the way. Sasha and Mansor found it so silly to see a stork prancing stiffly around in his funny dance that they forgot all about the warning and began to laugh. They were later to regret bitterly that laughter . Full of their new knowledge, the two storks decided, as the afternoon wore on, to return to the palace. Slowly and majestically they flew over the city. Something had happened in their absence, for they could see that the streets were thronged with spectators and a long procession was entering the portals of the palace. Sasha was furious to see a stranger sitting in his golden carriage, escorted by his own servants and guards. Wicked Kashenor's trick had worked, for the wizard's son was on his way to seize the Ruler's throne. "Hurry!" urged Sasha. "We must dash back to the palace. Who is that imposter?" "It's the son of Kashenor, the wizard you once banned from the palace," replied Mansor in horror. "He swore he'd get even. Remember?" But even as he spoke, the Chief Minister shook with fear, for what he himself could not remember was the magic word. The two storks landed on the ground, ready to become humans again, but Sasha could only stammer . "I don't remember . I don't remember . ." They looked at each other sadly: "We'll never be human beings again!"
