The story of a mother’s love begins with a family of black crows. One of the crows in the family was an older crow and the other was a younger crow who had a white chest. The older crow had no children of her own, but the younger one did.
Each morning, the older crow would watch the younger crow in the next tree sing lovely songs to her infants. After a while, the older crow would start to feel jealous because she had no babies of her own. All the babies the black older crow had in the past had all died.
The older crow also wondered why didn’t have any white patch on her chest. Each night, the older crow would complain to the gods. She would lament that each time she had children of her own, they ended up dying while the younger crow’s children got to live.
The older crow cried to the gods that they gave the younger crow everything, even a white chest. The more the older crow complained the angrier she got. One day, the older crow decided to make friends with the younger crow.
The older crow wanted to make sure that she got the trust of the younger crow before she went ahead with her plan. Each day the older crow would visit the nest where the younger crow kept her infants and she would feed them nuts and seeds.
After some time, the younger crow got used to the older crow visiting her tree every time. One day as the younger crow was going out, she decided to get food for her children. Then she asked the older crow to help her watch her children.
The older crow gladly agrees to help the younger crow watch her children. So the younger crow flies away leaving her children with the older crow. While the younger crow was gone, the older crow searched for the crow with a white patch and she took it with her.
The older crow lifted the baby crow from its next leaving behind the other baby crow who was terrified. While the younger crow was flying, she could feel a sharp pain and she knew that something was wrong. Immediately, she could hear the cries of her baby crying for help.
The younger crow flew back to the next immediately and all she could find was that her youngest child was missing. This made the mother very sad and so she wept bitterly as she searched for her child. The younger mother went from tree to tree to ask if anyone had seen her baby. However, they all said no.
The mother continued searching for her baby but she couldn’t find it. After a week of searching, the mother found a nest on top of a high tree. While she looked inside the nest she saw her baby. The older crow suddenly appeared and she asked the younger crow what she was doing here.
The younger crow replied that she trusted her with her babies and all she did was steal one of them. He asked the older crow to return her baby to her. The older crow looked at the younger crow and told her that the baby belonged to her and that she had given birth to the baby a few weeks ago.
Their argument drew the attention of the other crow and they came to see what was wrong. After hearing what both crows had to say, the rest of the crows agreed that the only way they can determine the true owner of the baby is by knowing the love they both have for the baby.
The other crows then brought two large leaves and they placed them in front of both the younger and older crows. The crow challenges them that the one who can cry the most tears and make the leaf wet would be the one to get the baby.
The older crow objected to this and she said that they could not determine the true owner of the baby by doing this. Meanwhile, the other crow agreed and she said that the older crow must cry to show that she loved the baby crow.
Left with no choice the older crow, agreed and she asked to go first. She looked at the baby crow, and squinted her eyes, however, nothing came out of her eyes. She also tried blinking but nothing came out. Then she also sang sad songs but nothing came out.
After several minutes of trying, it was the younger crow’s turn to start crying. The younger crow sat next to the nest, looked at her baby crow, and started singing. Tears flowed down her face, the moment she started singing. Her tears eventually washed the leaf away.
The other crows were amazed by her sadness and ordered the older mother to return the child to her mother. The older crow then told the younger crow that perhaps this was why all her children kept dying. This is because she was too busy giving attention to other babies to focus on her own. After that incident, the older crow was able to have her own children and she loved them with all her heart.