The correct answer to this open question is the following.
The theme that both stories present is to be more creative and use logic and the reason to come up with better ways to do things.
In the case of the story "The Crow and the Pitcher," the Crow realized a way to put rocks on the pitcher to get the water it needed to drink. That is how the crow solved the problem. Not by force, but by "creative thinking." That is the moral of the story.
The same with the story "Work Smarter, Not Harder," written by Travis Jhonson. Kari, the character of the story, had to remind the old trick she performed at her brother's birthday to apply in the removal of the snow. When she did, the results immediately changed. No more tireless work with few results.
So the moral of both lessons is finding creative ways to work hard but creating better results and not ending the chore, exhausted.