The Crow and the Pitcher

On a scorching hot summer day, when the sun blazed mercilessly in the cloudless sky, a crow was flying over the parched countryside in desperate search of water. The drought had lasted for weeks, and all the usual water sources had dried up. The streams were empty, the ponds had turned to cracked mud, and even the morning dew had disappeared.

The crow’s throat was parched, and his black feathers were dusty from the long search. He had been flying for hours without finding so much as a drop of water anywhere. His wings were growing tired, and he knew he needed to find water soon or he might not survive the day.

Just as the crow was beginning to lose hope, he spotted something in the garden of an abandoned farmhouse below. There, sitting on an old wooden table, was a tall pitcher. The crow’s heart leaped with hope as he swooped down to investigate.

Landing on the rim of the pitcher, the crow peered inside eagerly. His joy quickly turned to disappointment when he saw that there was indeed water in the pitcher, but only a small amount at the very bottom. The water level was so low that no matter how far he stretched his neck and reached with his beak, he couldn’t touch the life-giving liquid.

“So close, yet so far,” the crow croaked to himself in frustration. He tried stretching his neck as far as possible, but the water remained just out of reach. He tried tilting his head at different angles, but still couldn’t reach the water.

The crow considered trying to tip the pitcher over to spill the water out, but the pitcher was too heavy for him to move. It was made of thick clay and was firmly planted on the sturdy table. Even flapping his wings and pushing with all his might, he couldn’t budge it.

For a moment, the crow felt defeated. The water he desperately needed was right there in front of him, but it might as well have been on the moon for all the good it did him. Many creatures would have given up at this point, but the crow was known for his intelligence and problem-solving abilities.

“There must be a way,” the crow said to himself, refusing to give up. “I just need to think about this differently.”

He hopped down from the pitcher and began to examine the area around the table. As he looked around the abandoned garden, he noticed something that gave him an idea. Scattered around the dry garden were many small pebbles and stones of various sizes.

The crow studied the pebbles thoughtfully, then looked back at the pitcher. Suddenly, his eyes brightened with understanding.

“If I can’t reach the water,” he said to himself, “maybe I can make the water come closer to me!”

The clever crow immediately set to work. He picked up a small stone in his beak and flew back to the pitcher. Carefully, he dropped the stone into the water. It made a small splash and sank to the bottom.

The crow peered into the pitcher again. The water level had risen slightly, but it was still far from the top. One stone wasn’t nearly enough.

Undaunted, the crow flew back down to collect another stone. Then another. And another. Each time, he carefully carried a pebble to the pitcher and dropped it in, watching as the water level rose bit by bit.

The work was tiring, especially under the blazing sun, but the crow persevered. Stone by stone, pebble by pebble, he continued his methodical work. Other birds and small animals gathering in the shade began to watch, curious about what the crow was doing.

“What’s that crazy crow up to?” chirped a sparrow from a nearby bush.

“He’s wasting his time,” said a rabbit. “He should be looking for water somewhere else instead of playing with rocks.”

But the crow paid no attention to their comments. He was focused entirely on his task, driven by both his thirst and his determination to solve the problem.

After what felt like hours of patient work, the crow dropped another pebble into the pitcher and saw something wonderful: the water level had finally risen high enough for him to reach it with his beak!

With great satisfaction, the crow took a long, refreshing drink of the cool water. It was the most delicious water he had ever tasted, made even sweeter by the effort he had put into reaching it.

As the crow drank his fill, the other animals who had been watching realized what he had accomplished. They gathered around the table in amazement.

“How did you think of that?” asked the sparrow, clearly impressed.

“I couldn’t change the pitcher, and I couldn’t change my reach,” explained the crow, wiping his beak. “So I had to change the one thing I could control—the water level. Sometimes when you can’t solve a problem in the obvious way, you have to look for a creative solution.”

Word of the crow’s clever solution spread throughout the area, and soon other thirsty animals were coming to learn from his example. The crow graciously shared the water and taught them his technique.

From that day forward, whenever the animals faced a difficult problem, they would remember the crow and his pitcher, and they would ask themselves: “Is there another way to approach this? What can I change or control to make this work?”

The crow had not only saved himself that day; he had also taught everyone around him a valuable lesson about the power of persistence and creative thinking.

Moral: Necessity is the mother of invention. When faced with a difficult problem, persistence and creative thinking can often find a solution where brute force fails. Little by little, one can accomplish great things.