The question has long been, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" The apparently insoluble puzzle has become further complicated in India, where a rooster in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has been laying eggs.
According to a report in the The Asian Age newspaper, people are thronging the house of the rooster's master and some are even offering money, considering it to be a God-sent creature. Local veterinarians have suggested the "miracle cock" should be handed to a veterinary research institute where the doctors would try to find out how a male bird can lay eggs, but it is as yet unclear if that will happen.
The report said Ramhet Rawat, a resident of Dharkuiyyan in the state's Barabanki district, bought the miracle rooster two weeks ago with the intention of cooking it. For a night, he kept it under a basket with the intention of slaughtering and cooking it the next day.
But when he lifted the basket in the morning, to his utter surprise, he found the rooster had laid an egg. The bewildered Rawat called his neighbors and they investigated if it was actually a rooster or a hen.
Everyone, the newspaper reported, agreed the bird is indeed male, and Rawat decided not to slaughter it immediately.
Three days later, the cock again laid an egg. Since then, it has been laying an egg every third day.
News of the miracle spread like wildfire, and curious onlookers are still converging at Rawat's house to get a glimpse of the country's "miracle cock."