“The Crow and the Pitcher” from Aesop’s Fables
On a very hot day, a crow flew along, growing desperate with thirst. Suddenly her eye caught upon a glinting flash down below, and she saw a pitcher sitting in a garden. She happily flew down to it, hoping to find water inside that would quench her dry throat. But she was dismayed to see that only a little water was in it, and her beak could not reach down to the bottom of the pitcher. She stuck her beak in again and again, twisting her neck this way and that, but as hard as she tried, she could not drink a single drop.
The crow refused to give up. Instead, she thought and thought, examining the pitcher and her surroundings until she came up with a plan. In the garden where there were many pebbles. The crow hopped about, gathering them one by one and dropping them into the pitcher. It took some time, but the water slowly rose to the top as each pebble dropped in. The crow was able to drink, and so she saved her own life.
And from this tale we learn that necessity is the mother of invention.