The Fisherman and the Goldfish

Once upon the time, there was a fisherman. He lived with his wife in a very shabby hut

beside the sea. They were very, very poor.

One day, the fisherman went fishing and caught a goldfish. But the goldfish could talk,

“Please let me go! I’ll reward you.”

“Oh, my God?” cried the fisherman, “Don’t worry. I have no wish to eat a talking fish.”

So he puts it into the water.

The fisherman went home and told his wife about it. She became very angry.

“How foolish you are!” she said, “Look at the hut. Go back to the sea and tell the fish

to give me a cottage.”

So the fisherman went down to the beach.

“What’s the matter?” asked the fish.

“My wife wants to cottage.” said the fisherman.

“Don’t worry, she will have it.”

So the fisherman’s wife had her cottage.

But after a few days, she became tired of it. “Tell the fish to give me a palace.” she

said. Then the fisherman went back to the beach again. And the fisherman’s wife had her

wish granted and had a palace.

But she soon got tried of it, too. “Ask the fish to be my servant, and I want to be a

queen.”

This time, the fish got angry. It said nothing and swam away.

The fisherman waited and waited, but the goldfish didn’t come back. When he went back home,

he found that his wife was again sitting in their old shabby hut.