The old woman and her son

An old woman had ten sheep and a son. Every day her son would take the sheep to pasture, and the mother would mix a cup of water with the sheep’s milk that she sold to the neighbors. One day the son asked his mother why she mixed water with the milk. The mother answered:
“Son, we have very little milk, so I mix water with the milk to make make more money so that in winter we have more to eat.”

One day, when the boy took the sheep again to pasture, it began to rain. A bad storm with torrents of rain fell and the raging river swept the sheep away and they drowned. The son was luckily able to return home before sunset that day. His mother asked, “Son, where are the sheep, and why have you come home so early?”

The boy answered, “Mother, that cup of water you added to the milk everyday to sell more milk to the neighbors accumulated and swelled to the size of a great tidal wave that swept away and drowned our sheep.”

This is a fable by Vartan Ayhkegtzee (1170-1235).