One Fisherman

One Fisherman Short Story beginning…

There was once a fisherman so old and so poor that he could scarcely manage to support his wife and three children. He went every day to fish very early, and each day he made a rule not to throw his nets out more than four times. He started out one morning before sunrise and came to the sea-shore. He threw his nets, and as he was drawing them towards the bank he felt a great weight. He thought he had caught a large fish, and he felt very pleased. But a moment afterward, seeing that instead of a fish he only had in his nets a dead donkey, he was much disappointed.

After he had mended his nets, which the body of the donkey had broken in several places, he threw them a second time. When drawing them in he again felt a great weight, so that he thought they were full of fish. But he only found a large basket full of rubbish. He was much annoyed.

“O Fortune,” he cried, “Do not trouble me, a poor fisherman, who can hardly support his family!”

Having said that, he threw away the rubbish, and after having washed his nets clean of the dirt, he threw them out for the third time. But he only drew in stones, shells, and mud. He was almost in despair.

Then he threw his nets out for the fourth time. When he thought he had a fish he drew them in with a great deal of trouble. There was no fish, however, but he found a yellow pot, which by its weight seemed full of something, and he noticed that it was tied and sealed with lead. He was delighted. “I will sell it,” he said. “With the money, I shall get for it I shall buy some rice.”

He examined the jar on all sides and shook it to see if it would rattle. But he heard nothing, and so he thought there must be something precious inside. To find out, he took his knife, and with a little trouble, he opened it. He turned it upside down, but nothing came out, which surprised him very much. He set it in front of him, and while he was looking at it, such a thick smoke came out that he had to step back a step or two. This smoke rose up to the clouds and stretching over the sea and the shore formed a thick mist, which caused the fisherman much astonishment. When all the smoke was out of the jar it gathered itself together and became a genie, twice as large as the largest giant. When he saw such a terrible-looking monster, the fisherman would like to have run away, but he trembled so with fright that he could not move a step.

“Great king of the genie,” cried the monster, “I will never again disobey you!”

At these words the fisherman took courage.

“What is this you are saying, great genie? Tell me your story and how you came to be shut up in that jar.”

At this, the genie looked at the fisherman coldly. “Speak to me more politely,” he said, “before I kill you.”

“Alas! Why should you kill me?” cried the fisherman. “I have just freed you; have you already forgotten that?”

“No,” answered the genie, “But that will not prevent me from killing you, and I am only going to grant you one favor, and that is to choose the manner of your death.”

“But what have I done to you?” asked the fisherman.

“I cannot treat you in any other way,” said the genie, “and if you would know why listen to my story.

“I rebelled against the king of the genies. To punish me, he shut me up in this jar of copper, and he put on the cover his seal, which is enchantment enough to prevent my coming out. Then he had the jar thrown into the sea. During the first period of my imprisonment I promised that if anyone should free me before a hundred years had passed, I would make him rich even after his death. But that century passed, and no one freed me. In the second century, I vowed that I would give all the treasures in the world to the person who saved me but he never came.

“In the third, I promised to make him a king, to be always near him, and to grant him three wishes every day; but that century passed away as the other two had done, and I remained in the same unfortunate situation. At last, I grew angry at being a prisoner for so long, and I promised that if anyone would release me I would kill him at once, and would only allow him to choose in what manner he should die. So you see, as you have freed me today, choose in what way you will die.”

The fisherman was very unhappy. “What an unlucky man I am to have freed you! I beg you to spare my life.”

“I have told you,” said the genie, “that it is impossible. Choose quickly; you are wasting time.”

The fisherman began to think of a plan.

“Since I must die,” he said, “Before I choose the manner of my death, you must tell me if you were really in that jar?”

“Yes, I was,” answered the genie.

“I really cannot believe it,” said the fisherman. “That jar could not contain one of your feet even, and how could your whole body go in?

I cannot believe it unless I see you do it.”

Then the genie began to change himself into smoke, which, as before, spread over the sea and the shore, and which, then collecting itself together, began to go back into the jar slowly till there was nothing left outside. Then a voice came from the jar which said to the fisherman, “Well, unbelieving fisherman, here I am in the jar. Do you believe me now?”

The fisherman instead of answering took the lid of lead and shut it down quickly on the vase.

“Now, O genie,” he cried, “ask forgiveness of me, and choose by what death you will die! But no, it will be better if I throw you into the sea from where I pulled you out, and I will build a house on the shore to warn fishermen who come to throw their nets here, against fishing up such a wicked genie as you are, who wants to kill the man who frees you.”

At these words, the genie did all he could to get out, but he could not, because of the enchantment of the lid.

Then he tried to get out by cunning.

“If you will take off the cover,” he said, “I will repay you.”

“No”, fisherman reply.

The fisherman then threw the jar into the river and decided never to return to the river to catch fish and Turned back home.

Preaching:

No matter how bad the situation is, if a person manages with perseverance and true perception, he can get out of it comfortably.

Amazing Story

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