One lonely large stone in the jar

There was once this crow who wanted to fill it's nearly empty jar with stones so that the water would rise up and so it could drink to it's heart's content. (We've all heard the story, right). And so the crow picked the largest of stones and dropped it into the jar. The stone, being the stupid thing it was, thought it was akin to the stone in Steven Covey's simile of priorities in one's life. The water level did rise up and the crow did drink. But soon the crow realized that if it filled the jar with more stones the water level would rise up even further and it could drink more. (Did you say greedy? I'd probably give it the benefit of doubt and say that it was too thirsty). So it dropped a few more stones and did manage to get some more water.Later the crow got even more thirsty and realized that if it broke the big stone to pieces it could get some more stones in the jar and thereby get the water to rise some more. (All ye engineers know how it works, don't you?). So it pecked the large stone till it shattered to pieces and then filled the jar with more stones. And thus satiated its thirst. The crow was happy but the large stone (which by now was not one large stone but many tiny bits) was shattered (pun intended).

Moral of the story: If you are the crow don't depend on one large stone to get you what you want! If you are the stone don't hope that you can remain intact forever in someone else's jar!