In Mudbottom Pond lived a frog named Claudhopper, and Claudhopper had the biggest feet any frog had ever owned. They were like two green dinner plates.
Big feet make big hops, and big hops land in surprising places. Claudhopper aimed for a lily pad and landed in the duck’s nest. He aimed for the shore and landed in Grandmother Turtle’s soup. “Clodhopper!” laughed the other frogs. “Here comes old Clodhopper!”
So Claudhopper learned a habit. Before every hop he stopped, looked hard at the place he wanted to go, and said it out loud: “That pad. The round one. By the reeds.” And after he landed, he looked down to check he was where he meant to be.
One spring a wonder came to the pond: a Thinking Lantern. Ask it anything and it glowed and answered. The frogs crowded round and shouted all at once.
“Where’s lunch?” yelled one. The Lantern told him about a picnic three ponds away. “Is it safe?” yelled another, not saying what. The Lantern said yes, quite safe, and the frog very nearly hopped into a fox. “Silly Lantern!” they grumbled. “It gives silly answers!”
Then Claudhopper shuffled up on his enormous feet. He stopped. He thought about exactly where he wanted to land. “Lantern,” he said slowly, “I am a frog at the north end of Mudbottom Pond. Where are the flies thickest at sunset? And please tell me if you are not sure.”
The Lantern glowed warmly. “The flies are thickest by the old log,” it said. “Some also gather in the east reeds, but I am not sure the east reeds are safe tonight. You should look first.”
So Claudhopper looked first. And there in the east reeds, still as a stick, stood a heron with a very long beak. Claudhopper warned the whole pond, and that night every frog ate well by the old log, and nobody at all got eaten.
After that, no one laughed at the big feet. Claudhopper pressed them in the mud, one print for every good place to land, until he had made a map of the whole pond. The little frogs followed it pad by pad. And they still call a good, careful question “a Claudhopper”.
Moral: Look before you leap. Ask clearly, and check where you land.
In real life: An AI helper like Claude answers the question you actually ask. Say who you are, what you need, and ask it to tell you when it isn’t sure. Then check the answer before you jump.