Once a Jewish merchant was traveling through a strange land and as he traveled the road through a mountain pass, he was attacked by a robber, who took away everything he had. After the robber striped him of everything, he told the merchant: “Now I am going to take your life, for if I let you live, you will tell the sheriff about me and if caught, I will be hanged. For that reason I will kill you, and then I shall feel safe.” The Jewish merchant begged with weeping eyes: “Let me live and I will not report you. If you kill me, the birds will betray you and you will lose your life.”

The robber laughed and said: “Birds, report me? I see that you are making fun of me.” Sadly the Jewish merchant replied : “No, I am not making fun of you, but it says in our Scriptures:

`The birds which fly between heaven and earth will reveal the secret’  (Eccl. 10:20).

You see the bird on that tree over there? He will report your crime.” Then the robber grew angry and said: “You are surely making fun of me,” and he killed the hapless merchant.

The robber went his way and came to an inn, where he asked for food and drink. The inn­keeper brought him a plate of roasted birds. When the robber saw the birds, he began to laugh. The innkeeper, who stood near the table, seeing that the guest was laughing, asked him: “Why are you laughing? Since you are laughing to yourself, it must be something clever, so tell me what it is about.” The robber, thinking that no one would concern himself about the death of the Jewish merchant, told the innkeeper the experience he had with the Jewish merchant, and how he had made fun of him and told him that the birds of heaven would report him. That’s why, seeing the birds on the plate, he laughed. The innkeeper thought that the Jewish merchant had spoken the truth and said to himself: “As he killed a Jewish merchant, he no doubt did other things too, and is surely a murderer. For that reason it is my duty to report him.”

The innkeeper went to the mayor and told him that there was a man in his inn who had committed a murder. The mayor said to him: “Go home and I will be there soon.” The innkeeper returned home and sat down by his guest. In a quarter of an hour the mayor came in with three men and said to the murderer: “You are under arrest.” The robber was very much frightened and almost died for fear. He was thrown into prison and tortured until he confessed to the murder of the Jewish merchant and other murders besides. Then he was broken on the wheel, and in this way the words of the Jewish merchant that the birds would report him, came true.

Based on Shalsheles haKabalah 56b-57a