Beautiful Islamic Stories

- An Intelligent Fish Seller

There was a king who was a generous and wonderful man. But his wife was stingy in nature.

Once the king went hunting along with the queen and, on the way, they stopped by a big tree to rest in its shade. There, an Arab brought a fresh big fish to the king. The king was pleased and gave him 4000 dinars for it.

The queen complained immediately: "This is wasting money. It goes far beyond generosity. You spent 4000 dinars for a single fish! How much would you give away if you were given something more precious? If you paid less than that you'd thought inconsiderate and if you wanted to pay more , the treasury would soon be emptied."

She insisted that he had to get the money back from the Arab and pay him the real price of teh fish.

"How can I take back what i have already given him? That would not be kingly in manner," exclaimed the king,

"We can trick him and get the money back. For example, we can ask him if the fish is a male or a female. If he says male, we'll immediately say that we were looking for a female, and if he says female, we'll say we were looking for a male. This can be the best excuse to give him back the fish and have the money refunded."

"Oh, very well. You, Arab man, come over here and tell me if it was a male or a female fish."

The clever Arab, who promptly understood the reasoning behind the question, replied:"It was neuter, Sir."

The king liked hhis respinse and ordered that he be given another 4000 dinars.

The man was quite happy to recieve another 4000 dinars. When he turned around to leave he dropped a coin. He bent down and picked it up. The queen took advantage of this to say to the king: "Look, how mean he is. He didnt leave a single coin for anybody else."

The king said, "Hey, you, come over here again. I gave you thousands of dinars but even so, when one of your coins dropped, you bent down and picked that single coin uo. Don't you feel ashamed of yourself?"

The man gently replied, "Long live our king. I didnt do it because im a stingy person. Its just that the coin bears a picture of your Majesty on it, and I thought it would be stepped on by careless people."

The king was so very greatful that he granted him another 4000 dinars.