The Fisherman and the Jinn

Once upon a time there was a poor old fisherman. He had a wife and three children, and they lived with great difficulty. Every day the fisherman cast his net into the sea four times, no more. One morning, before sunrise, he went down to the shore and cast his net. When he tried to pull it in, it felt very heavy. He was delighted, thinking he had caught a big fish. But when he hauled in the net, he found a dead donkey in it. The fisherman was very sad; he cleaned his net and cast it a second time. This time the net came up with a jar full of sand and mud. He cast it a third time, and the net came up full of broken pots and stones.

The fisherman looked up at the sky and prayed: "Lord, you know that I cast my net four times a day. I've cast it three times and got nothing. Give me my daily bread with this last one." He cast his net a fourth time. Again the net was very heavy. When he hauled it in, he saw a bottle of yellow brass, its mouth sealed with lead. On the seal was the seal of Solomon. The fisherman was glad: "I'll sell this in the market. It'll fetch ten gold coins." He shook the bottle; it was heavy. "I wonder what's inside? Let me open it and see."

He scraped away the lead with his knife and opened the bottle. He tipped the bottle and shook it, but nothing came out. Then smoke began to rise from the mouth of the bottle; it rose up to the sky, spread out over the sea, and finally gathered together into a fearsome jinn. The jinn's head touched the clouds and his feet stood on the ground; his hands were like pitchforks, his mouth like a cave, his teeth like rocks and his eyes like two torches. The fisherman trembled with fear and could not speak.

The jinn cried out: "O Solomon! Don't kill me, I'll never disobey you again!" The fisherman plucked up his courage and said: "O jinn, Solomon died eighteen hundred years ago. We are now near the end of the world. What is your story? How did you get into this bottle?" The jinn turned to the fisherman: "I have good news for you, fisherman. I'm going to kill you right now!" "Why?" cried the fisherman. "I set you free from the bottle and brought you up from the bottom of the sea!"

"Listen to my story," said the jinn. "I was one of the jinn who rebelled against Solomon. Solomon shut me in this bottle and had it thrown into the sea. I waited in the bottle for a hundred years and said to myself: 'Whoever frees me, I'll make him the richest man in the world.' No one freed me. The second hundred years came, and I said: 'Whoever frees me, I'll open all the treasures of the earth to him.' No one freed me. Four hundred years passed, and I said: 'Whoever frees me, I'll grant him three wishes.' Still no one freed me. Then I grew so angry that I swore: 'Whoever frees me after this, I'll kill him, but I'll let him choose how he dies.' And now you've freed me. So tell me, how do you want to die?"

The fisherman wept and begged, but the jinn would not give up. At last the fisherman thought: "This is a jinn, and I am a man. God has given me a mind. I'll stand up to him with my wits." He said to the jinn: "Very well, since I must die, before I die I'll ask you one question, and I want you to tell me the truth in the name of Solomon's seal." When the jinn heard Solomon's name, he trembled: "Ask, and I'll tell the truth."

"You're so big; your head touches the clouds, and not even one finger of your hand would fit in this bottle. How could you get into it? I don't believe it. I'll never believe it unless I see it with my own eyes." The jinn was proud and angry: "You don't believe I was in this bottle?" "No, I won't believe it without seeing it." The jinn shook himself, turned into smoke again, and slowly, curling round and round, went into the bottle. When all the smoke was inside, the fisherman at once took the lead seal and sealed the mouth of the bottle tightly.

The jinn shouted from inside the bottle: "Let me out, let me out!" The fisherman laughed: "Now I'll throw you back into the sea. Then I'll build a house on the shore and live here, and I'll tell every fisherman who comes here: 'There's a jinn here, and whoever frees him will be killed. Don't you dare cast your net here!'"

The jinn began to beg: "Fisherman, forgive me. I did you wrong, but do me a kindness. There's an old saying: do good to the one who does you harm, and his harm will be enough for him. If you let me go, I swear I'll make you rich." The fisherman thought for a long time. Then he asked the jinn to swear by the name of God that if he let him go, he would do him no harm, but would do him good instead. The jinn swore. The fisherman opened the seal of the bottle; the smoke rose again, and the jinn appeared.

First the jinn kicked the bottle into the sea. The fisherman was frightened, but the jinn laughed: "Don't be afraid, fisherman. I'll keep my oath. Take your net and follow me." He led the fisherman out of the city to a clear lake between four hills. The fish in the lake were of four colours: white, red, blue and yellow. "Cast your net," said the jinn. The fisherman cast his net and caught four fish, one of each colour. "Take these fish to the sultan," said the jinn. "They will make you rich. But come here and cast your net only once a day, no more." Then he struck the ground with his foot, the earth split open, and the jinn went into it and vanished.

The fisherman took the fish to the sultan. The sultan had never seen such colourful fish in his life; he liked them very much and gave the fisherman four hundred gold coins. But when the fish were being cooked in the kitchen, very strange things happened: the kitchen wall split open, a beautiful young woman stepped out and spoke to the fish, and the fish turned to charcoal. To solve this mystery, the sultan went to the lake with the fisherman. There he discovered an enchanted palace, a prince half turned to stone, and that the fish in the lake were really the people of an enchanted city. The sultan broke the spell, the fish became people again, and the enchanted city came back to life.

The sultan did not forget the fisherman's part in all this. He took him into his own palace, married his eldest daughter to the fisherman's son, and his own son to the fisherman's daughter. The fisherman lived rich and happy to the end of his days. But every morning he still went down to the shore and cast his net once; for it was the brass bottle from the bottom of the sea that had brought him both his greatest fear and his greatest fortune.

This tale tells us: even the mightiest enemy can be defeated with wits. Answering evil not with evil but with a wise kindness can open doors a person never expected.