The Crow Gets the Pitcher

Not long after Aesop's crow found Aesop's pitcher, a different crow found a different pitcher, but the situation was much the same. Thirsty crow, low-water pitcher, beak too short.

The crow wrestled with this thorny, or watery, problem for some time, and at length, he came up with a solution. This is no surprise. It was the pebble gambit. However, just as he was about to drop his first pebble into the pitcher, who should appear but the Crow Boss.

"What are you doing there?" asked the Crow Boss. Never a good sign.

"Oh, I'm dying of thirst," explained the crow, "but fortunately, I found this pitcher here. But unfortunately, the water is so low that I can't reach it with my beak. Never fear, however, for I have come up with a plan. You're going to be proud of me." But they never are, you know.

"What's this brilliant plan?" asked the Crow Boss.

"I'm going to drop pebbles into the pitcher to make the water level rise to a point at which I can reach it!" announced the crow, with a sad "ta-da!" in his voice.

"I'm sorry," said the Crow Boss. "I can't let you do that."

The crow started so violently that he almost sucked the pebble down his trachea, making the rest of this story moot. "Why not?" he cawed piteously.

"Because we have no budget for pebbles," replied the Crow Boss. "But I'll tell you what you can do!"

"And what's that?" asked the crow, hopefully.

"You can flap your wings and dance around the pitcher, singing 'wiki, wiki, woo, woo!'" said the Crow Boss.

"Um, how will that get the water out?" asked the puzzled crow.

"It won't," said the Crow Boss. "But for that, we have budget."

Little by little won't do squat, if it isn't funded.