一只画眉鸟被囚禁在窗外挂着的一个笼子里，当其他鸟儿都酣睡时，她却在夜里歌唱。有一个夜晚，蝙蝠飞过来，抓住鸟笼的栅栏，问她为什么白天默默无声，却在夜间放声歌唱。小鸟回答说：“我这样做是有道理的，曾经有一次，当我在白天唱歌时，一个捕鸟人被我的歌声吸引，就用鸟笼子捉住了我。从此我只在夜里唱歌。”可是，蝙蝠却说：“你现在这样做根本没用了，因为你已经成为了阶下囚。若是在被捉住之前这样做就好了，那样或许你依然是自由之身！”
（笼子里的鸟与蝙蝠的`故事寓意）
笼子里的鸟与蝙蝠其实就是说，在生活中我们要提前预判一些将要发生的事情，不要待事件发生之后再预防，那时候为时已晚。
（笼子里的鸟与蝙蝠的英文版）
THE CAGE-BIRD AND THE BAT
A Singing—bird was confined in a cage which hung outside a window,and had a way of singing at night when all other birds were asleep.One night a Bat came and clung to the bars of the cage，and asked the Bird why she was silent by day and sang only at night.“I have a very good reason for doing SO，”said the Bird：“it was once when I was singing in the daytime that a fowler was attracted by my voice，and set his nets for me and caught me.Since then I have never sung except by night.”But the Bat replied，“It is no use your doing that now when you are a prisoner：if only you had done SO before you were caught，you might still have been free.”
Precautions are useless arter the event.