Woman Shares Her Breakfast With Crows — Then They Surprise Her By Returning The Favor

Last month, author and law student Tejaswinee Roychowdhury was in Calcutta, India, on university business. She booked a hotel room in the city for a two-week stay.

Roychowdhury had traveled alone. But she wouldn’t be alone for long.

The first morning, when

Roychowdhury looked out onto her balcony, she spotted a group of local crows perched on the railing. So she decided to share her breakfast with them.

“I started giving them biscuits,” Roychowdhury told The Dodo.

The next morning, the crows were back on the balcony, eager to greet their generous new friend at the start of the day. Unfortunately, things would be different.

Roychowdhury had just about run out of treats.

“I had limited food, so I didn’t give them any biscuits that day,” she said.

The crows weren’t upset. In fact, they may have been sympathetic instead.

The following morning, Roychowdhury awoke to find this — a scattering of bits of bread spread out on her balcony. It seemed like it could only have come from one place.

“[I] didn't feed the crows since yesterday morning, as I'm low on biscuits,” Roychowdhury wrote on X. “So, this morning, they left bread on the balcony thinking I ran out of food.”

Crows are indeed known for leaving “gifts” for people who have been kind to them. So, evidently, when the crows realized Roychowdhury had no food to give them, they decided to return the kindness she'd shown them.

“I loved it so much,” Roychowdhury said.

But this wouldn’t be a one-time thing.

To reassure the crows that she wasn’t actually going hungry, she picked up some more food for them. Deciding biscuits weren’t the healthiest option, she gave them almonds instead.

They gobbled them up every morning, but continued to leave bread for Roychowdhury.

“I actually noticed them toss the bread on the balcony,” she said. “I saw it from the window by the balcony.”

Roychowdhury didn’t eat the bread they left for her, of course. Seeing that she hadn’t, some crows would come later in the day to eat it — apparently satisfied that she’d passed on first dibs.

This went on every day of Roychowdhury’s two-week stay before she finally checked out and headed home.

“It was very sweet. The day I was leaving, [the crows] were nearby, and one was on the staircase railing. I felt like they understood I was going away,” Roychowdhury said.

Coincidentally, her experience with the crows came within a month of the release of a book she edited — one that features this illustration on its cover.

The friendly crows on her balcony had made Roychowdhury's trip unforgettable.

"For me, it is something I'll always cherish," she said.

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