Handout

An Old Cracked Pot
桜梅桃李

授業活用例：
　Choose one character you like the best and write the reason why it is your pick.

生徒作文実例：
　I like the old man best because he was kind enough to encourage the cracked pot when it was having a hard time.
　I think it is difficult but important for us to find something good in our friends.

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An Old Cracked Pot

　　Once upon a time, there lived an old man in India.
　　His job was carrying water from a river to the top of a hill where rich people lived. He sold the water to them and got some money.
　　He had two pots to carry water. One was brand-new shiny and the other was old and cracked.
　　After he filled them with water, he hung them at each side of a carrying bar and put it on his shoulders. Then he began to walk up towards the top of the hill.
　　When he got there, half of the water in the old cracked pot had gone because the water had been leaking from its cracks all the way.
　　It was very hard to walk up with such burdens to the top of the hill. He worked and worked, but only got a little money.
　　The brand-new pot didn’t like the old one, so he began to complain.
　“You, old cracked pot, is always leaking. If you did not lose any water on the way, the old man would get more money. As I never leak water, the old man gets good money from me. He must be thinking about throwing you away and getting a new one.”
　　The brand-new pot was bad minded, so he repeated the same thing again and again to the old cracked pot.
　　The old cracked pot got worried. He felt sorry for the old man because he was not useful any more to him. If the old man threw him away and got another brand-new pot, he would get much money, he thought. One day the old cracked pot asked the man near the top of the hill.
　“The old man, you know, I feel sorry that I can’t give you as much money as the brand-new pot because I am leaking. I am useless. Please throw me away and get a new one. That would make you happier.”
　　The old man, shaking his head, said to the old cracked pot,
　“Look at the path we walked up. Can you see anything?”
　　The old cracked pot replied,
　“No, nothing but the desert.”
　　The old man said,
　“Look at very closely. I am sure you can find something.”
　　The old cracked pot said,
　“Uhh, I can see only the desert and some flowers.”
　　The old man said to the old cracked pot,
　“You can see the flowers, that is what I meant. You know, carrying water up to the top of the hill is very hard work. The only thing that gives me pleasure while carrying is the flowers. I had dropped seeds of the flowers on my way up and down the hill. The flowers do not grow without water. The water leaking from you was watering the flowers and finally they bloomed. Without those flowers, I could not keep working. You are not useless at all.”
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Handout