«I know it’s true. I saw it with my own eyes.»
Naivety was never better expressed and the conjuror makes full use of this weakness.
James Randi in «Mind Myths»
Using a story from Burton’s (1897) «The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night» as a basis, modernizing it a bit and removing some distractions. Will still rub some people the wrong way, but a great story regarding motivated reasoning and corrupted witnesses.
The Husband and the Parrot
A merchant had married a fair wife, a woman of rare beauty and grace, richly formed and a wonder to behold. But she delighted in admiration, and though she had promised fidelity, she had never quite given up the pleasures of being courted. The merchant loved her deeply, but he knew her nature well enough to be uneasy whenever business took him away.
One day he had to make a long journey. So he went to the bird market and bought a she-parrot. The bird was clever, forgot nothing, and repeated faithfully whatever she saw and heard. He set her in his house to keep watch, expecting her to tell him all that happened in his absence.
Now his fair wife had become infatuated with a young man. She feasted him by day and lay with him by night. When the merchant returned from his journey, he had the Parrot brought before him at once and questioned her regarding the conduct of his wife while he was in foreign parts.
The Parrot said, «A young man came to your wife each day and passed each night with her.»
«Ah, I knew it,» cried the merchant, for the Parrot’s words confirmed what he had long feared.
Then he went to his wife and gave her a severe whipping for her infidelity.
The woman promised to be faithful thereafter, but she suspected that one of the maids had betrayed her secret to the master. She called them together and questioned them upon their oaths. They all swore that they had kept the secret, but that the Parrot had not.
«And I heard her with my own ears,» one said.
When the husband next left the house for a night to be entertained by one of his friends, the woman told one of the girls to set a hand-mill beneath the cage and grind it there. She told a second to sprinkle water through the top of the cage. And she told a third to run left and right, flashing a mirror of bright steel at the bird throughout the night.
The next morning the husband returned, had the Parrot brought before him, and asked what had taken place while he was away.
«Pardon me, O my master,» quoth the bird, «I could neither hear nor see for the thunder, rain, and lightning that lasted throughout the night.»
The husband was astounded.
«But we had a clear sky last night, and there was neither rain nor storm anywhere.»
«I heard the thunder with my own ears,» rejoined the bird, «felt the rain on my feathers, and saw the lightning with my own eyes.»
At this, the merchant felt a sharp pang of doubt. Perhaps he had wrongly punished his wife on the word of such an unreliable witness.
«Ah, I knew I had wronged her,» he cried, for now the bird’s mistake confirmed what he was eager to believe.
He snatched the bird from its cage, flung it out the window, and cast stones after it.
«Out, you lying bird, and never bring discord into my home again!»
Then he went to his wife and begged her pardon. He gave her a necklace of gold and red stones, hoping to make amends for the punishment he now believed unjust. She received it with grace and forgave him.
Some days afterward, as the merchant passed the servants’ room, he heard laughter within and one of the maids say, «A fine thunder you made with that mill.»
The merchant stopped at these words. But this time he said nothing.
Soon afterward he announced another journey, but returned to his house in secret. When he saw the young man enter his wife’s chamber, he followed quietly and found his wife and her lover naked together in her bed.
The young man sprang from the bed with a curse and seized his sword. But the merchant had faced worse men on the dangerous roads. Before the lover could bring his blade to bear, the merchant cut him down.
His wife, fearing another whipping, threw herself at his feet. But he seized her by the scruff of her neck, hauled her to the back door, and cast her into the street as she stood.
As the merchant closed the door, he knew that the Parrot had served him faithfully, and understood how easily a man may be fooled by what he is already prepared to believe.