An Enlightened Man

This is something from the odds and ends that I had collected. I have such a lot of scrap books that I still have to go through.
There was this wise old man who had answers to all life-related questions. He was and enlightened person. A boy wanted to test the old man. He caught hold of a little bird. Holding it in the palm of his hand and with the hand hidden inside his coat, he asked the old man, "I have a bird with me. Is it alive or dead?" The old man smiled and said, "If I tell you, the bird is alive, you will crush the bird and show me a dead one. If I tell you, the bird is alive, you will release the bird and show me it is alive."
Embarrassed, the boy dropped his head and began to walk away. He would have hardly walked a few steps. He heard the voice of the old man, "Mind you my son, in fact, this is the philosophy of life - your life and death are in your own hands."