The Two Buckets at the Well

2 minute read
Ages 5-9
Bedtime Stories

There were two buckets on the same rope over the same well, and they had been there for years.

When one went down, the other came up. That was the arrangement and neither of them had any say in it.

The first bucket

The first bucket was miserable about it.

"Look at this," he said, going down for the four-hundredth time that month. "However full I come up, I always go back down empty. It never ends. There is no point to any of it."

He said this most days. He had been saying it for years.

The second bucket

The second bucket had heard all of it and had a different view, which she gave him occasionally without expecting to change his mind.

"However empty I go down," she said, "I always come up full."

"That is the same thing."

"It is exactly the same thing," she agreed. "It is the identical rope and the identical well and we do the identical number of trips. I am not telling you that you are wrong about the facts."

"Then what are you telling me?"

"That there are two ends to it," she said, "and you have decided to look at one of them, and I have decided to look at the other, and neither of us can change the trips."

The well

They went on doing it for years after that.

Nothing about the arrangement ever changed. The rope did not get shorter and the well did not get shallower and neither of them was ever let off a single journey.

The first bucket was unhappy for all of it.

The second one was not.

The end of it

Eventually the rope wore through, as ropes do, and they were both replaced.

And the two new buckets went up and down over the same well, on a new rope, doing exactly the same work.

One of them started complaining in the first week.

Moral of the story

Nothing in this story changes. The well is the same, the rope is the same and the work is the same. The only thing that differs is which end of it each bucket decided to look at.

Questions and answers

How were the two buckets arranged?
On the same rope over the same well, so when one went down the other came up.
What did the first bucket complain about?
That however full he came up, he always went back down empty.
What was the second bucket's view?
That however empty she went down, she always came up full.
Did she claim he was wrong about the facts?
No. She agreed it was exactly the same rope, well and number of trips.
What happens at the end?
The rope wears out and two new buckets replace them, and one of the new ones starts complaining in the first week.

Word meanings

arrangement: The way something is organised or set up.
miserable: Very unhappy.
identical: Exactly the same.
shallower: Not as deep.

Questions about The Two Buckets at the Well

What is the moral of The Two Buckets at the Well?

That two people can face the same unchangeable situation and have completely different experiences of it, depending on which end they look at.

Is the story saying the first bucket should just cheer up?

Not quite. The second bucket never tells him he is wrong or that he should feel differently. She simply says there are two ends and she has picked one.

Why does it end with new buckets?

To show the situation was never the cause. New buckets, same well, and one of them starts complaining immediately.

What age suits this story?

Ages five to nine, though the idea keeps working for much older readers.