The Water Mother is a Chinese fairy tale collected by Wolfram Eberhard in Folktales of China.
Wolfram Eberhard pointed out that "elements" of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type ATU 565 appear here.
One day, she decreed that they could not buy water from water-carriers, but her daughter-in-law would have to carry it from the well.
An old woman told her not to, and gave her a stick, which, when used to strike the pail, would fill it with water.
For a time, she was happy, but her mother-in-law spied on her, stole the stick, and struck the pail twice.