Theme: Greed see no end.
Story 21
Endless desires.
A simple and good natured fisherman lived in a small hut on the sea shore. There were a few other families who lived by fishing.
While the male members go out on high sea with their boats and fishing net, the women take the fishes to the rich and poor.
While the fisherman was very hard working, content and happy, his wife was not. She always dreamt of living in a house built with brick and mortar.
After a few years of routine life, one fine Evening The fishing net was too heavy to pull.. Initially fisherman thought that he got a big catch – a large fish. When he drew the net near he found that it wasn’t a fish. Instead, it was a large flounder.
The flounder spoke. It told the fisherman that he was no fish. He was in fact a prince cursed by a holy man who was once his Spiritual Guru. Very soon the holy man would turn me back into a prince. It begged the fisherman to spare his life and for that act, the flounder promised that it would be grateful for ever.
The fisherman took pity and allowed the fish to swim back into the sea.
When the husband had finished with the story on flounder, his wife became too angry. He called him a stupid and that he had missed a golden opportunity.
On a second thought, he was wondering if he had done something wrong. His conscience did not permit him to seek any favor for some good deed.
His nagging wife convinced him stating seeking a small favor in return for as much as sparing ones life in no compensation at all. Unable to withstand his wife’s bickering and nagging.
He promised his wife that he would seek the flounder’s favor and get her a house built of bricks.
His wife was happy.
The next day, the fisherman called out the flounder and it readily came to the shore. With great hesitation he expressed his wife desire and the flounder replied saying that the wish is granted.
When he returned to his place he found no hut. Instead a big brick house was standing in its place. His wife was happily singing and enjoying her stay in her new house.
Her happiness did not lost long.
Soon, he started comparing houses and people where she sold the fish. Now she wanted a life better than a fisher woman. She started pestering her husband asking him to return to the flounder and ask for a life of a big merchant in the town. The husband initially refused to oblige his wife. After several arguments and fight finally yielded to his wife’s desire. This time too the flounder obliged.
This way, the desire of the fisher woman did not stop anywhere.
She became a minister, then a queen of the small province in which they were living. Then a queen ruling the entire country. She understood that she would never be content. Her desires grew faster.
One day she asked her husband to talk to flounder and ask as to how the flounder got its magical powers. Her husband was annoyed as before.
Suggesting his wife that it would be the last time that he would be seeking flounder’s favor and if she ever pester her, then he would abandon her and leave the place.
The flounder told that it was god who gave the magical powers. It also told the fisherman that his wife is too greedy. Now she would ask you to ask me to make her a god herself. I warn you in advance that if she thought so, she would return to her small hut which she originally occupied. The flounder also told the fisherman that his punishment period is over and he will not be appearing before him from then on.
The fisherman thanked the flounder and left.
When he returned home, he started telling her whatever transpired between him and the flounder.
But before he could complete his narration, she thought that she would start fighting with her husband to ask one last favor from the flounder, that is, to make her a god. No sooner she thought that, she found herself back into her shabby hut.
The fisherman never returned to his old hut where his wife lived.