The Fisherman
Arabian Nights (1001 Nights)
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Retold by The Legendary Connection
TLC#00086
Once upon a time, there was a poor fisherman who worked very hard to take care of his family. Every day, he went to the sea with his net, hoping to catch enough fish. He promised himself that he would throw his net into the water only four times each day.
One morning, after casting his net, the fisherman felt something heavy. He was excited, thinking it might be a lot of fish. But when he pulled up the net, he found only an old, broken tire. The fisherman was sad, but he didn’t give up. He threw his net again. This time, he felt another heavy pull, but when he pulled it up, it was just a pile of plastic bottles and trash.
“Why am I so unlucky today?” he sighed, but he kept going.
For the third time, the fisherman cast his net. He hoped for fish, but again he pulled up only seaweed and some more rubbish. Feeling almost hopeless, he decided to throw his net one last time. This time, when he pulled up the net, he found a large, sealed pot that looked old and mysterious.
"Maybe there’s treasure inside!" thought the fisherman. He opened the pot, but instead of treasure, thick smoke poured out and turned into a huge, scary genie! The fisherman was so scared he couldn’t move.
“Thank you for freeing me,” the genie said. “But now I must follow my promise: I vowed to hurt the person who let me out.”
The fisherman was very frightened, but he quickly thought of a clever idea. “I don’t believe you were really inside that small pot! You’re far too big to fit in there,” he said.
The genie, wanting to prove himself, turned into smoke again and squeezed back into the pot. As soon as the genie was inside, the fisherman quickly closed the lid, trapping him.
The fisherman smiled and said, “Now you’re back inside the pot, and I’m safe!”
And with that, the fisherman threw the pot back into the sea, knowing he had outsmarted the genie. From that day on, the fisherman trusted his quick thinking, which helped him out of even the trickiest situations.
Original Source: Lang, Andrew. “The Arabian Nights Entertainments.” https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/128/pg128-images.html#chap05 , 1 Jan. 2021, Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.
