Olle never did try to explain it. This tale I found in Great Swedish Fairy Tales Illustrated by John Bauer , translated by Holger Lundbergh illustrates those values. It is interesting to contrast the ambitions of the boy with that of the magpie. The boy, though wistful, is content with a little, the magpie, full of ambition, is constantly demanding the best, and never satsified. Yet the boy achieves the best through economy and diligence and using the resources he had at hand.
Magpies are black and white colored relatives of the crow family of birds, the corvids.
They are related to jackdaws, jays, rooks and ravens as well. They usually live in flocks and are rather noisy, often gathering in roosts, when not tending their young in monogamous pairs. They are found in both North America and much of Europe and Asia. They build elaborate and conspicuous domed nests comprised of as many as 1,500 sticks cemented together with a layer of mud - with a thorny roof to keep out predators. After all that work, the magpies use the the nest only once.