Problem solving story: When a crow had to think outside the box to survive

One hot day, a thirsty crow flew all over the fields looking for water. For a long time, the crow could not find any water, not even a puddle to wet its beak in. After so much time looking for water the crow started to felt very weak, and it almost lost all hope. Right when the crow was ready to give up, it suddenly saw a water jug below the tree in the shade. It flew straight down to see if there was any water inside. And to its luck, there was fresh cold water in the jug. But there was an unexpected problem, the jug was only half full and the crow couldn’t get to the water whit its beak. To solve this problem the unlucky bird would have to think “outside the box”.

The crow tried everything even the simple and obvious things such as it would push its head into the jug. Sadly, it found that the neck of the jug was too narrow. Then it tried to push the jug to tilt for the water to flow out, but the jug was too heavy. It even tried to break the jug with its beak but the jug was just too strong.

The crow thought long and hard and it was ready to give up. It sat next to the jug thinking it would die of thirst right next to the very thing it could save it. As the crow was angry, and in despair, it was looking around thinking “this will be the last thing I see. Some trees, grass and pebbles.” And right then it suddenly got an idea. The crow started picking up the pebbles one by one, dropping each into the jug. As more and more pebbles filled the jug, the water level kept rising. Soon it was high enough for the crow to drink. His crazy “outside the box” plan had worked and the crow lived to see another day!