
The Sparrow's Small Basket
In an Edo-era mountain hamlet, a patient old woodcutter shares his rice-paste with a small brown sparrow, and when the bird is chased away he walks into the bamboo grove to find it, discovering that the smallest, lightest gift, chosen without hurry, is the one that can be carried all the way home.
Retold from Japanese Fairy Tales, by Yei Theodora Ozaki.