Chapter 4 of Class 5 English Santoor, The Wise Parrot, is an insightful folk tale about a rich merchant’s beloved talking parrot who longs to fly free in the jungle. When the merchant travels to a forest and delivers a message to the parrot’s wild flock, a wild bird drops from its branch as if dead — sending back a clever secret message on how to win freedom.
What Class 5 English Chapter 4 Covers
A Golden Cage Is Still a Cage — A wealthy merchant keeps a bright, articulate parrot in a comfortable cage, feeding it delicacies and chatting with it daily. Yet the parrot’s deepest wish is to soar freely through the open sky with its companions in the forest.
The Message to the Forest Flock — Before leaving on a trading journey through the deep forest, the merchant asks his pets what gifts they want. The parrot asks only that the merchant greet the wild parrots in the jungle and tell them about its life in a cage.
The Secret Lesson of the Wild Parrot — When the merchant delivers the message, one wild parrot trembles and falls motionless to the ground. Returning home, the sad merchant relates this incident to his pet — and the caged parrot immediately falls down in the exact same way. The grieving merchant opens the cage and places the bird on the windowsill, whereupon the wise parrot spreads its wings and flies joyfully into the sky.
Grammar — Collective Nouns, Prepositions & Past Tense — Introduces collective nouns (a flock of birds, a herd of cattle, a pack of wolves, a bunch of keys), prepositions of place and movement (into, out of, across, through), and story-sequencing skills.
Exercises in Chapter 4
- Let us Think & Speak: Explain why the caged parrot was unhappy despite luxury, why the wild parrot fell from the tree, and how the pet parrot used that hint to escape; role-play the conversation between merchant and bird.
- Let us Learn & Write: Match collective nouns with groups, fill in prepositions of movement, and write a short dialogue or letter from the parrot to the merchant after gaining freedom.
Read Class 5 English Chapter 4 Online
More Chapters
- Previous: Chapter 3: The Rainbow
- Next: Chapter 5: The Frog
- All English chapters and the other Class 5 books: Class 5 NCERT books 2026-27
- All Class 1 to 12 NCERT Textbooks: NCERT Books PDF (Class 1–12)
- Every book chapter by chapter: NCERT chapter wise PDF
FAQ
How did the wild parrot help the merchant’s pet parrot escape in Chapter 4?
Upon hearing that its friend was trapped in a cage, the wild parrot pretended to fall dead from the tree. When the merchant described this at home, his pet parrot copied the trick, prompting the merchant to open the cage door — allowing the bird to fly away free.
What moral does ‘The Wise Parrot’ teach?
It teaches that freedom is more precious than comfort in a cage, and that quick wit and presence of mind can overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.