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The Unexpected Crocodile
How Children Reimagine Our Stories
We all know the classic Aesop’s fable of the thirsty crow. Searching desperately for water, the clever bird discovers a pitcher with water at the bottom, just out of reach. Rather than giving up, the crow drops pebbles into the vessel one by one, raising the water level until it can finally quench its thirst. The moral is clear: persistence and ingenuity can overcome obstacles that seem insurmountable.
At least, that’s the version most of us know.
My three-year-old nephew has other ideas.
A Classic Tale Reimagined
Recently, I sat down to share this timeless story with my nephew, carefully explaining the moral at the end — that the crow didn’t get frustrated but instead thought about his problem and solved it. I felt satisfied with my little lesson in perseverance, until our conversation took an unexpected turn:
“There was a crocodile in the pitcher,” my nephew declared.
Caught off guard, I tried to gently correct this unexpected plot development. “But the pitcher was small, crocodiles are big,” I reasoned.
Without missing a beat, he responded: “The crocodile was also small.”
