One of the ministers of King Brahmadatta was very wise. He could also understand the language of animals and birds. One day while he was walking around the city, he happened to come to a river.
Some fishermen were casting nets and catching fish. The minister stopped to watch. He saw that there was one very large fish who was busy following another one constantly. He went closer to the river to hear their conversation.
He found that the two were husband and wife. The wife was an extremely beautiful silvery fish who glided through the waters gracefully. The husband was so much in love with his wife and her beauty that he could never take his eyes off her, following her devotedly. He saw nothing else around him.
The fishermen, meanwhile, had got their nets ready and threw them across the river. The wife of the fish was always alert to the dangers around them. She knew that fish hooks and nets were dangerous. She saw the net and swiftly avoided it.
Her husband, on the other hand, was looking at her and floating along in a silly dream. As usual, he did not look around him and remained unaware of the net dropping into the river. Before she could warn him, he had swum straight into the net! He was truly caught and landed on the bank of the river in a large wooden bucket of water.
In the bucket, he struggled and howled, “My wife! Oh, my wife! I’ve been separated from her! Oh, please let me go to her!”
The minister had been watching the two fish and heard the poor silly fellow crying. “What a fool this fellow is! He is so much in love with his wife that he cannot see even danger when it is right in front of him! Such an obsession with anything is very bad as it makes one weak. If he dies with such foolish ideas, he will continue to suffer for many more lives. I must help him.”
So, the minister went to the fishermen and asked them to give him one fish. They gave him the fish he chose.
The minister told the fish, “You silly fellow! You would have been killed today and gone on to many more unhappy lives because of your blind desire. Fools get trapped by their own desires.” The fish was grateful to the minister for showing him the right path and he went back into the river a wiser fish.
