Somebody carried water for a village for years and would not be thanked for it,
and the village, being polite, learned not to try.

One winter they went over on the ice and dropped the whole pail,
and three people came out of three houses.

They were mortified for a week. After that they were greeted.
The pail had never once done that in nine years.
Only the dropping of it did.

The Book of the Shadow — Return 58:7