Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave. The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him.

Tagore contrasts two attitudes toward receiving and giving. The bee takes sweetness from the flower yet departs with a “humming” gratitude, suggesting humility and an awareness of dependence. The butterfly, valued for its showiness, imagines the flower should be grateful to it—an image of vanity and entitlement. The epigram critiques those who mistake display for service and who convert relationships into moral debts owed to them. More broadly, it reflects Tagore’s recurring ethical emphasis on reverence, reciprocity, and the quiet dignity of gratitude over self-advertising pride.