Peregrin's Fables - The Crow and the Jug
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Once apon a time there was a great drought in the land, and water could not be found by love, money or through a tap.
A certain crow was flapping wearily around, with his throat parched, and the sun beating down on his head. Not literally beating, of course, that would be painful and politically incorrect. The sun was excessively shining down on his head.
He saw a tall jug on the ground, near a house. He flew down and landed on the lip, in the unlikely possibility of it containing water. He looked in, and to his utter joy saw a faint reflection of himself in the bottom; it contained water!
But then, to his horror, he found he could not fit through the neck of the jug, to reach the water at the bottom. He had another idea; he could push over the jug, and the water would come out.
So he flapped down to the bottom of the jug and pushed against it, straining as hard as he could. It moved - slightly.
There was an owl roosting in the rafters of the nearby house, who was awakened by the grunts and groans of the crow. He said to the crow, 'What are you doing?'
'I'm trying to push over this jug, so I can get at the water at the bottom.'
'That's stupid,' replied the owl. 'Don't you see that if you push it over, the water will slosh out and drain into the ground? You will loose it completely.'
'Oh. Duh. Right.' said the crow, scratching his head. 'What can I do, then?'
'Raise the level of the water to the top of the jug.' said the owl, and went back to sleep again.
The crow thought about what the owl said and eventually got it. He picked up a stone, flew up to the top of the jug, and dropped it in. To his joy, the level of the water rose slightly. He dropped another stone in, and carried on doing that until he could reach the water.
He drank deeply of the refreshing water. Unfortunately it wasn't water, but weedkiller, and it poisoned him and killed him horribly.
The moral of this story is: Who would leave water lying about in a drought anyway?Previous fable - The Astrologer
