The Broken Pot
A fable retold from the Panchatantra, an ancient Indian story collection
This fable comes from the Panchatantra, an ancient collection of Indian wisdom stories first written down more than fifteen hundred years ago. The tale of the dreamer whose plans fall apart appears in many cultures—from the Arabian Nights to La Fontaine's fables in France. Our saying "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched" comes from this very story. The Panchatantra teaches that it is good to have dreams, but we must take care of what we have right now. This text reflects its era.
- Band
- Purple · Pre-readers and first readersTypical starting range: ages 4–5
- Length
- short · about 368 words in 4 sections · 4 pictures
- Source
- Indian Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs and John Dickson Batten
- First published
- see the About page in the reader
- Regions
- Canada · United States
Included formats
- · Web reader and PDF
- · EPUB for e-readers
- · Home-print sheet
- · Folded booklet
- · Binder edition (8.5 × 11)
- · Worksheet
- · Quick Check (6 questions) with answer key
- · Read-aloud script
- · Colouring page
- · Teacher’s Edition (members)
Lesson at a glance
- Reading
- about 9 minutes at this band
- Pause questions
- 3
- Words to Know
- 4
- Quick Check
- 6 questions, with the answer key
- Let’s Talk
- 3 questions for afterwards
- Worksheet
- questions, an activity and a drawing prompt
About 35 minutes with one story, all of it.
Readers are engineered from the original public-domain text with AI under HummingRead’s published canon and Content Philosophy, checked by automated audit and sampled by a person. Pictures are made with AI to HummingRead’s brief for each story. How a reader is made.
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The same story
Other bands of this story
This story is ready now at the Purple band only. Other bands can be made to order for members after launch.