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The Crow and the Pitcher

by Aesop

A thirsty crow finds a clever way to reach water in a pitcher.

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Original language: EnglishLevel: Beginner917 characters · ≈ 1 minSource: 伊索寓言

Opening lines

A Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach it.

He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair.

Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher.

Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher.

Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher.

Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher, and he…

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About the book

The Crow and the Pitcher is one of Aesop's Fables, numbered 390 in the Perry Index. It reflects an ancient observation of corvid behaviour, in which a crow solves the problem of getting a drink. Recent scientific studies have confirmed that such behaviour is goal-directed and indicative of causal knowledge rather than mere instrumental conditioning.

About the author

Aesop (c. 620–564 BCE) was a Greek fabulist and storyteller credited with the fables collectively known as Aesop's Fables. His existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, but numerous tales attributed to him, many featuring anthropomorphic animal characters, have been gathered over the centuries in a storytelling tradition that continues today.

Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: The Crow and the Pitcher (CC BY-SA)

How the glosses are made

Word glosses and sentence translations are generated in context by AI models (DeepSeek and Zhipu GLM), and every word is checked to have a gloss. AI can make mistakes; you can report problems from the book page.

FAQ

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Yes. The library holds the opening section of the public-domain original, taken from 伊索寓言.

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