A tale about work and the mother tongue

The textbook has the tale “Qarg‘a va paxta” (The crow and the cotton) by Nasiba Erxonova, which shows how many professionals’ work is needed before clothes exist. We do not retell it. Features of a tale: an opening formula such as “Bir bor ekan, bir yo‘q ekan” (“Once there was, once there wasn’t”), often animals or magical characters, a struggle of good and bad, and an ending that gives a lesson. Words like “debdi” (he said) and “ekan” (it seems) are common in tales. A tale is told simply but has deep meaning.