The Three Fishes (Tales of the Dervishes)

Three fishes once lived in a pool. They were: a clever fish, a halfclever fish and a stupid fish. Life continued for them very much as it is for fishes everywhere until one day came—a man.

He was carrying a net, and the clever fish saw him through the water. Calling upon his experience the stories he had heard, and his cleverness, he decided to take action. ‘There are few places to hide in this pool,’ he thought. ‘I shall therefore play dead.’ He summoned his strength and jumped out of the pool, landing at the feet of the fisherman, who was rather surprised.

But as the clever fish was holding his breath, the fisherman supposed that he was dead: and threw him back. This fish now glided into a small hole under the bank. Now the second fish, the half-clever one, did not quite understand what had happened. So he swam up to the clever fish and asked him all about it. ‘Simple,’ said the clever fish, ‘I played dead, so he threw me back.’ So the half-clever fish immediately leaped out of the water, at the fisherman’s feet. ‘Strange,’ thought the fisherman, ‘they are leaping about all over the place.’

And, because the half-clever fish had forgotten to hold his breath the fisherman realized that he was alive and put him into his satchel. He turned back to peer into the water, and because he had been slightly confused by the fishes jumping on to dry land in front of him, he did not close the flap of his bag. The half-clever fish, when he realized this, was just able to ease himself out and, flipping over and over, got back into the water. He sought out the first fish and lay panting beside him. Now the third fish, the stupid one, was not able to make anything at all of this, even when he heard the first and second fishes’ versions.

So they went over every point with him, stressing the importance of not breathing, in order to play dead. ‘Thank you so much: now I understand,’ said the stupid fish. With these words he hurled himself out of the water, landing just beside the fisherman. Now the fisherman, having lost two fish already, put this one into his bag without bothering to look at whether it was breathing or not. He cast the net again and again into the pool, but the first two fish were crouched into the depression under the bank. And the flap on the fisherman’s bag this time was fully closed. Finally the fisherman gave up. He opened the bag, realized that the stupid fish was not breathing, and took him home for the cat.

Source: Tales of Dervishes, Idries Shah

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