The Pot That Would Not Mend

The Parable of the Broken Pot is an Ai-Naidari parable and has many versions. This version of the Parable of the Broken Pot first appeared in chapter one of Black Blossom.

"Reck this: Once there was an aridkedi, a country merchant who specialized in the creation of pots for her small town. She was the sole seller of pots, for no other potter had her talent. Greatly did she please her community, and so she lived well and they benefited greatly by her skill. So great was her skill, in truth, that she mended any of her wares if they cracked, and if that mending did not take, she gave the Ai-Naidari a replacement as an apology for her failure."

"The potter was never called upon to give out any replacements, though she was occasionally called upon to mend her works, for they were of such quality they were often used well past when another pot would have been deemed worthless."

"One day, however, a client brought her one of her mended pots, which had broken again. She could not believe it had failed, and promised the client he would have the pot again, better than new. And so she fixed the pot, but within days it had broken again. Once more she mended the pot, but it was mere hours before it fell in pieces."

"As promised, she gave the Ai-Naidari a new pot without charge... but she returned to the pot and attempted to fix it once again. Each time it failed, she applied herself to its mending."

"It came to be that another aridkedi became the merchant of pots for that community. The most talented potter in town had become so obsessed with her failure that she had no more time to make new pots."

"This is the tale of the broken pot. Reck it well."