The Crow and the Pitcher Story for Kids

The Crow and the Pitcher: the full story

Part One · Plop!

It was a hot, hot day. The sun was up.

Crow was hot. Crow was dry.

"I need a drink of water," said Crow.

He looked up. He looked down.

Then he saw a big jug.

There was water in the jug!

But the water was down at the bottom.

Crow put his beak in. No, it was too low.

Crow pushed the jug. No, it was too big.

Crow sat. Crow had a think.

Then he saw little rocks by the jug.

He got one rock. Plop, in it went!

He got one more rock. Plop!

Plop, plop, plop!

The water came up, up, up.

Crow put his beak in. Sip, sip, sip!

Crow had a big, cool drink.

"Little by little does the trick," said Crow.

About this story

A free Grade 1 story from the Peabody library, Level 1. It has 18 short pages and about 128 words, so it reads in a few minutes.

The short version

A thirsty crow finds a jug with a little water at the bottom, too low for his beak to reach. He cannot tip the jug over, so he drops in small rocks, one at a time. The water rises until he can take a long, cool drink.

Quick facts

One of Aesop's fables, the animal stories of ancient Greece. No one knows who first told this one.

The Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote of a thirsty crow piling stones into an urn to bring the water within reach, in his Natural History.

The Latin poet Avianus put the fable into verse around the 4th or 5th century.

In 2009 researchers at the University of Cambridge tested four rooks, relatives of crows. They dropped stones into a tube of water to reach a floating worm.

What it teaches

Think it through, and keep at it a little at a time.

Where this story comes from

Aesop, a storyteller in Greece, told this about 2,600 years ago. Real crows can do this trick too!

Is The Crow and the Pitcher a true story?

The story is a fable, but birds really can do this. In 2009, researchers at the University of Cambridge gave four rooks, which are relatives of crows, a tube of water with a worm floating on top, and the rooks dropped in stones until the worm was in reach. In 2014 a study of New Caledonian crows found they dropped stones into water rather than sand, and chose sinking objects over floating ones, though they failed two harder tests. The authors compared their understanding to that of children aged 5 to 7.

What is the moral of The Crow and the Pitcher?

Tellers have drawn different lessons from it. The Latin poet Avianus took it to show that thoughtfulness beats brute strength, and some later versions say “necessity is the mother of invention.” In this telling Crow solves the problem by thinking, and then by working a little at a time.

Who wrote The Crow and the Pitcher?

It is one of Aesop's fables, and no one knows who first told it. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder wrote about a thirsty crow and an urn in his Natural History, and the Latin poet Avianus put the fable into verse around the 4th or 5th century. This page is a retelling in Peabody's own words.

To print it or save it as a PDF, tap the ⓘ button above the story, then “Print this story”.

This is a first reader, so it also prints as a little book or on one page: print this book. For more like it, see beginning reader books.

The Crow and the Pitcher