Once upon a time, there lived two families of black crows. One crow was an older black crow and the other was a younger black crow with a white breasts. The older black crow had no children, while the black and white did.
Every morning, the elder crow watched the young mother sing beautiful songs to her babies in the tree next to them.
After a while, she became jealous because of all the babies she had died.
She also wondered why he didn’t have a white spot on his chest like a younger crow. Every night she angrily complained to the gods, “Why is it that every time I have my own children, they end up dying while hers live? You gave everything to the other crow. I don’t even have a decorated chest like hers!”
The more she complained, the angrier she got. So one day she decided to befriend a younger crow. She wanted to make sure the young mother trusted her before she went ahead with her plan.
Every day she visited the nest where the babies were and gave them seeds and nuts to eat. After a while, the crows began to get used to this new visitor.
One day, when the mother raven was on her way to get food for the children, she asked if the older raven would babysit. Hearing this, the elder crow was happy and smiled mischievously, “Yes, of course! I will keep your children safe, take all the time in the world!” The young mother raven flew away, leaving her children behind.
While she was gone, the elder crow turned her eyes to the baby crows, searching for the one with the white patch on her breast, similar to her mother. “Yes, this is the one I want,” said the crow. She quickly lifted the baby from the nest and flew away, leaving the other baby crows scared and crying for their mother.
As the young raven mother flew, she felt a sharp pain in her chest and knew something was wrong. Suddenly she heard the sounds of her baby crow screaming for help.
She quickly flew back to find the youngest of her children missing. The mother wept bitterly as she searched for her child.
She went from tree to tree asking if anyone had seen her baby, but all the other crows said no. She continued to search far and near but did not find her child.
After a week of non-stop searching, she found a nest at the top of a large tree far away from the other crows. She saw her baby inside the nest.
Before she could do anything, an older crow appeared. “What are you doing here?” She asked.
“I trusted you with my children and you stole one of them. Please give her back to me!” replied the young crow.
The elder crow looked at her in surprise and said, “This is not your child. This is my baby. I gave birth to her a few weeks ago.”
When the other crows heard the two arguments, they came to see what had happened. After they both listened, they said, “The only way we can prove whose child it is is to determine the love you both have for him.
The other crows brought two giant leaves and placed them in front of the two crows. “The one who can cry the most tears and wet this sheet will be the one who gets the baby.” The elder crow was angry and said, “No, it does not determine anything. I don’t need to cry to prove it’s my child.” The other crows replied, “Yes, you do. These tears will show us if you really love your child.” With nothing else left, the elder crow reluctantly agreed and asked if can go first. First, she started by looking at the baby crow and squinting very hard, but nothing worked. Then she tried to blink many times, but nothing worked. Then she sang mourning songs and thought of sad memories, but nothing worked. She even tried to use the force of the wind by opening her eyes enough, but nothing came out.
After a few minutes of nothing, the other crows gave the young mother a chance. The young mother went next to the nest, looked at her child, and began to sing a song: “Dear beautiful child, this is your mother. I’m here crying for you because I love you.”
As soon as she began to sing, tears ran down her cheeks and washed away the sheet.
The other crows marveled at her grief and quickly ordered the elder crow to return the child to its mother. The elder crow returned the child and said, “Perhaps that is why all my children are dying! I was too busy paying attention to other children and neglecting my own. And even though I stole this beautiful child, I didn’t feel the same love for her as a mother would have.”
After that day, the elder crow was able to have a child of her own and she loved him with all her heart.
