THE GRATEFUL SPARROW

Once upon a time, there lived an old woman who had a very bad temper. One day, she was so angry with a sparrow which chirped in her courtyard that she hit it with a bamboo pole. She broke the sparrow's wing. The unfortunate bird the escaped to the house next door.

In this house lived a very poor but kind grandmother. She mended the broken wing for the sparrow. She took great care of him and feel him rice and gave him fresh water. Soon the sparrow was strong enough to fly away. As she flew up into the air, the grandmother called out him, "Look after yourself, and don't  go near my neighbour's house again."

A few days later, the sparrow flew into the grandmother's garden again. He carried a tiny gourd in his beak. He dropped this gourd in front of the kind woman. The grandmother picked it up and looked at it. When she opened it, rice began to pour on the ground. The more she shook the gourd, the more the rice flowed out of it. Since then, she never needed to go hungry again. 

Source: Favorite Stories From Japan