The Donkey in the Well

One day, an old donkey falls into a deep well.

The farmer tries to figure out what to do, but decides, given the age of the animal and the danger of the deep open well, that the best course of action is to fill the well and close it off.

He begins to shovel dirt into the well. After several hours of work, the farmer is nearly done filling the well, when suddenly, to his amazement, the old donkey leaps out from the dirt-filled well and trots off into the pasture.

The farmer realizes: Rather than resigning itself to its fate with each shovel of dirt that hit its back, the donkey had shaken the dirt off and stepped up on top of it.

As the farmer had continued to shovel dirt into the well, the clever donkey _used the dirt_ to get closer to its escape.