The Frog in the Well

At the bottom of an old, abandoned well there lived a little frog. The inside of the well was his whole world. In the mornings he hopped onto the edge of the well, and in the evenings he dived into the water. When he looked up, he saw a small, round sky. "That's how big the sky is," he would say, "exactly as big as the mouth of my well."

One day a big turtle from the sea came past the well. When the frog saw her, he called out cheerfully: "Welcome! Come and see my wonderful home. Here I can hop as much as I like, the water is as deep as I want, and the sky is right above my head. There couldn't be a better place! Would you like to come in?"

The turtle tried to put one foot into the well, but before her right foot was even in, her left foot got stuck on the edge. The well was far too narrow for her. She smiled and stepped back.

"My little friend," said the turtle, "I live in the sea. The sea is so big that if you swam for a thousand days, you would never reach the other side. It is so deep that no one has ever seen the bottom. If it rained for nine years, the sea would not rise by even a finger; if there were a drought for seven years, it would not fall by even a finger. And above the sea the sky stretches on and on, without end."

The frog's eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open. He had never heard anything like it. At first he did not want to believe it, then he felt ashamed, and then he grew very curious. "So the world is bigger than my well," he whispered.

That night the frog sat on the edge of the well and, for the first time, imagined the sky spilling over the mouth of the well. He decided that one day he would climb out of the well and go to see the sea.

This tale tells us: what we know is only a small part of the world. Whoever is curious, learns and listens grows a little bigger every day.