On the banks of a large river, an old man and an old woman lived in a dilapidated hut. They lived poorly: every day the old man went to the river to catch fish, the old woman boiled this fish or baked it on coals, and that was the only way they were fed. If the old man doesn’t catch anything, he just goes hungry.
And in that river lived the golden-faced god Jala Kamani, the lord of the waters. One day, an old man began to pull nets out of the river, and he felt that the nets were somehow painfully heavy these days. He pulled with all his might, somehow pulled the nets to the shore, looked - and closed his eyes from the bright shine: a huge fish lay in his nets, as if cast from pure gold, moving its fins, moving its mustache, looking at the old man with all its fish eyes. And the golden fish said to the old fisherman:
“Don’t kill me, old man, don’t take me, old man, to your home.” You’d better let me go free, and in return ask me for whatever you want.
“What can I ask of you, miracle fish?” says the old man. “I have neither a good house, nor rice to satisfy my hunger, nor clothes to cover my body.” If you, by your great mercy, grant me all this, I will be grateful to you until my death.
The fish listened to the old man, shook its tail and said:
- Go home. You will have a house, food, and clothing.
The old man released the fish into the river and went home himself. Only when he arrived, he couldn’t find out anything: instead of a hut made of branches, there was a house made of strong teak logs, and in that house there were spacious benches to seat guests, and there were whole dishes of white rice there, so that you could eat your fill, and there were piles of elegant clothes, so that on holiday people would not be ashamed to appear in front of people. The old man says to his wife:
“You see, old woman, how lucky you and I are: we had nothing, but now we have plenty of everything.” Say thank you to the golden fish that caught me in the net today. She gave us all this because I set her free. Our troubles and misfortunes are now over!
The old woman heard what her husband had told her, and just sighed, shook her head, and then said:
- Eh, old man, old man!.. You have lived in the world for many years, but you have less intelligence than a newborn baby. Is that really what they’re asking for?.. Well, we’ll eat the rice, take away the clothes, and then what?.. Go back now, ask the fish for five servants, ask for a new house - and not this miserable shack, but a big, good one - such that the king himself would not be ashamed to live in it... And let there be storerooms full of gold in that house, let the barns burst with rice and lentils, let new carts and the plows are standing, and there are ten teams of buffaloes in the stalls... And ask again, let the fish make you the headman, so that throughout the entire district people will honor and respect us. Go, and don’t come home until you beg!
The old man really didn’t want to go, but he didn’t argue with his wife. He went to the river, sat down on the bank and began calling to the fish:
- Come to me, miracle fish! Swim out, golden fish!
After a short time, the water in the river became muddy, a golden fish surfaced from the bottom of the river, moving its fins, moving its mustache, looking at the old man with all its fish eyes.
“Listen, miracle fish,” says the old man, “I asked you, but apparently it’s not enough... My wife is dissatisfied: she wants you to make me a headman in our district, and she also wants a house twice the size of the present one, she wants five servants, and ten teams of buffaloes, and barns full of rice, and she wants gold jewelry, and money...
The golden fish listened to the old man, waved its tail and said:
- Let it be so!
And with these words she dived back into the river. The old man went home. He sees: all the surrounding residents have gathered on the road with pipes, drums, and are holding rich gifts and garlands of flowers in their hands. They stand motionless, as if they are waiting for someone. When the peasants saw the old man, they all fell to their knees and shouted:
- Headman, headman! Here he is, our beloved headman!..
Then the drums beat, the trumpets began to play, the peasants put the old man in a decorated palanquin and carried him home on their shoulders. And the old man’s house is new again - not a house, but a palace, and in that house everything is as he asked the fish.
From then on, the old man and the old woman lived happily and comfortably; they seemed to have plenty of everything, but the old woman kept grumbling. A month had not passed when she again began to pester the old man:
– Is this respect, is this honor? Just think, a big man-elder! No, you need to go to the fish again and ask it well: let him make you maharaja over the whole earth. Go, old man, ask, or else, tell the old woman, they say, mine will swear...
“I won’t go,” the old man replies. “Or don’t you remember how we lived before, how we starved, how we were poor?” The fish gave us everything: food, clothes, and a new home! It wasn’t enough for you, she gifted us with wealth, she made me the first person in the whole district... Well, what else do you want?
No matter how much the old man argued, no matter how much he refused, the old woman said nothing: go to the fish, and that’s all. What could the poor old man do? He had to go to the river again. He sat down on the shore and began to call:
- Swim out, golden fish! Come to me, miracle fish!
He called once, called again, called a third... But no one swam up to his call from the depths of the waters, as if there were no golden fish in the river. The old man waited for a long time, then sighed and trudged home. He sees: in the place of a rich house, a dilapidated hut stands and his old woman sits in that hut - in dirty rags, her hair, like the bars of an old basket, sticks out in all directions, her sore eyes are covered with scabs. The old woman sits and weeps bitterly.
The old man looked at her and said:
- Eh, wife, wife... I told you: if you want a lot, you will get little! I told you: old woman, don’t be greedy, you will lose what you have. You didn’t listen to my words then, but it turned out my way! So why cry now?
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru