The Cracked Pot
A leaking water pot grieves its own flaw — until it sees the flowers along the path. Where did you first hear this tale?
Summary
A water bearer carries two pots; one is cracked and arrives half empty. The cracked pot apologises for its failure, and the bearer shows it the line of wildflowers that has grown along the path it watered every day.
Full anecdote
A water bearer carried two pots slung from a pole. One was whole; the other had a crack, and arrived at the house each day only half full.
After two years the cracked pot spoke in shame: 'I am flawed. You do all this work and I deliver only half.'
The bearer said, 'Look at the path as we walk home.' Along the cracked pot's side of the trail grew a ribbon of wildflowers, watered every day of those two years. 'I have always known about your crack,' the bearer said. 'I planted seeds there.'
The tale is preached across traditions as a lesson on usefulness in weakness. It is usually labelled a Chinese, Indian, or Korean folk tale, but no printed folkloric source has yet been produced. Contributors are invited to find its earliest appearance in print or in a documented oral collection.
Known variants
- 'The Water Bearer'
Same story with the bearer as narrator; common in devotional email forwards from the late 1990s.
- The cracked bowl / broken jar
Retold with a bowl or clay jar, sometimes fused with the potter imagery of Jeremiah 18.
References checked
- Standard folktale indexes (Aarne–Thompson–Uther)Checked; no matching tale type located to date.
- Devotional email circulation, c. 1997 onwardEarliest located copies are already anonymous forwards.
First-hearing on record
No first-hearing attribution on file.
This anecdote entered the archive without a named teller, place, or date of hearing. The only certainty we can record is when it was entered here.
- Entered
- Seed entry
- Teller
- Unrecorded
Heard this one from a pulpit? Add your first hearing below and your name goes on the record as the earliest attested hearing.
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