There are many variations of this folktale out there… but this is the version I remember. Stories tend to grow and change and evolve as they are told — that’s part of the wonder of the oral tradition.
A hunter set out a simple trap: a glass bottle filled halfway with berries.
Along came a slender, graceful crane and a shaggy, playful monkey. They saw the bottle of berries and both wanted some.
“Let me use my long beak to get the berries,” Crane said. She reached into the bottle and carefully pinched a berry in the tip of her beak. She pulled beak and berry out and dropped it onto the ground for the monkey. She dipped her beak back into the bottle and retrieved another berry for herself.
“This is too slow,” the monkey complained. Pushing the crane aside, he pushed his hand through the hole at the top of the bottle. It was a tight fit, but he managed to squeeze hand and arm down into the bottle and grab a fistful of berries.
But when he went to pull his hand back out, it wouldn’t fit through the tapered neck of the bottle! Try as he might, pull as hard as he could, Monkey couldn’t get his fistful of berries out.
“Just let go of the berries and pull your hand out,” Crane suggested. “I can get them out one at a time.”
“No!” Monkey was adamant. “These are my berries and I’m keeping them!”
When the hunter returned, Crane was free to fly away to safety, but stubborn Monkey still refused to let go of his berries and was caught!
There’s a similar story about a clever but thirsty crow finding a bottle filled halfway with water. The crow wanted a drink, but couldn’t get the water out without spilling it. Eventually she figured out that she could add pebbles to the bottle to get the water level to rise to the top of the bottle — where she could finally slake her thirst.
Do you know any other about clever animals solving bottle problems?