Anansi and the Pot of Wisdom

Long, long ago, people didn’t know very much about how to build houses, grow crops, or settle arguments. This was because Anansi the Spider, who was very tricky, had managed to gather every single piece of wisdom in the entire world and stuff it tightly into a massive clay pot.

“I am the smartest creature alive!” Anansi gloated, patting the huge pot. “With all the world’s wisdom hidden away in my house, everyone will have to pay me to fix their silly problems!”

To make sure absolutely no one could steal the wisdom, Anansi decided to hide the heavy pot at the very top of the tallest, thorniest silk-cotton tree in the village.

Anansi tied the huge pot tightly to his belly with strong webbing and began to climb. But it was incredibly difficult. The pot was heavy, bulky, and kept getting caught on the sharp thorns. He huffed, completely out of breath, sliding backward every time he tried to take a step up.

His young son, Ntikuma, had been watching from the ground.

“Father!” the boy called up. “You have a huge pot strapped to your front! Wouldn’t it be much easier to climb if you tied the pot to your back? Then you could hug the tree properly!”

Anansi paused. He looked down at his son. Then, he looked at his squashed belly. Ntikuma was absolutely correct.

But suddenly, Anansi felt extremely foolish. “How can this be?” he shouted angrily. “I have gathered all the wisdom in the entire world into this pot, yet my little child still had the wisdom to tell me how to climb this tree!”

In his frustration and surprise, Anansi threw his hands up and dropped the pot. It tumbled down the thorny tree and smashed into tiny pieces on the ground.

All the wisdom instantly flew out. It scattered into the wind, landing in the minds of people all across the world. And that is why, today, wisdom is shared by everyone, and no single person knows everything.

Moral of the Story: No one person owns all wisdom. Even the smartest person in the world can still learn something from a child.