The Crow and the Pitcher

A thirsty crow found a pitcher with a little water at the bottom. Her beak could not reach it, and she thought she might die of thirst beside the cure.

Then she had an idea. She dropped pebbles into the pitcher, one by one. With each stone the water climbed higher, until it reached the brim and she could drink.

About this fable

Here is a fable from Aesop, the Greek collection of animal tales, so it does not come from India. The words follow V. S. Vernon Jones’s 1912 translation, which prints the moral “Necessity is the mother of invention” under the story.

Joseph Jacobs, retelling it in 1894, makes the crow drop one pebble after another in a long repeating chain, “then he took another pebble…”, which is fun to chant aloud. His moral is shorter: “Little by little does the trick.”

Read the original: V. S. Vernon Jones, Aesop’s Fables (Project Gutenberg #11339, The Crow and the Pitcher)

Best for ages 3–5: a short, satisfying fable about thinking hard and not giving up, suited to an adult-led demonstration with safe materials.

The crow changes the problem

The crow cannot make her beak longer. She changes the height of the water instead. Each stone is a small step, but it also provides feedback: the water rises, so repeating the action is useful. The story celebrates persistence attached to an idea that is working, rather than repeating any action simply because it takes effort.

Watch a water level move

An adult can place a clean, large object in a clear plastic container partly filled with water, keeping all materials under adult control. Mark the water level before and after. Draw the change and connect it to the crow’s problem. For young children, use a drawing instead of loose pebbles or other small objects.

Talk about it

• Why couldn’t the crow drink the water at first?
• How did dropping pebbles help the water come up?
• If you were the crow, what else might you have tried?

Related stories

• The Lion and the Mouse — a tiny mouse proves that small creatures can do big things
• The North Wind and the Sun — the Sun wins a contest by being clever and gentle, not rough
• The Oak and the Reed — a proud oak and some bending reeds face the same storm