Formerly a poor man big heart, practicing the fisherman, lived with his family of three in a straw hut on the banks of a river in the middle of a dense forest.

Unfortunately, the fish had almost disappeared from the cormorants, and several days had an empty house shopping. There was nothing to eat in the pot. His children cried, his wife scolded, but all he could do was to knit his eyebrows.

One night when the moon had just disappeared behind the mountains, was restlessly tossing about in bed. wife and children were sleeping soundly. Suddenly seemed to hear a knock at the door. Thinking that nobody would be around at such a late hour, he paid no attention, until finally hitting was very stubborn. Since he is scared of ghosts, pulled on some clothes and he looked out the window near the bed.

The silvery-green disc of the moon shone through the pines in the western hills, and an icy wind blew through the window. Going to the door and shouted: "Who's there?" "I am," replied the voice. "I bring you fish. Open the door quickly. "" Oh, you little number three? "Asked the fisherman, because once he had heard that Little Three fish caught for other people. Since the voice replied to his question, yes, he opened the door .

A dwarf, dressed in a raincoat and a big straw hat, smiling, came in the room with a basket full of fish on his back. Said the fisherman to get half the fish and cook and eat the rest; In no case, however, must have spoken to other people who had brought them.

Three just did his own cooking with the simplest way. He used not only for spices, salt and oil, but the food tasted delicious. When it was finished eating, made a rendezvous with the fisherman for the next evening in a specific place to catch fish.

The next morning the fisherman fish sold, bought some rice, and told his wife that a friend had lent some money. He sat at home all day and mused about his experience. When his wife urged him to go outside, he merely replied that there were no fish and it was a waste of time to go down river.

Dark and soon time to go. His wife and children slept; silent fisherman took a large basket fishing and went to meet Little Three. He met the wild rocks near river. The spirit was impressed by the need to monitor this closely and not saying a word and breath as delicately as possible. The fish could not see Three Little but make noise if the fish will swim off together. The strangest thing was that the dwarf was able to walk on the water, and you only need to spit on the soles of shoes of the fisherman to allow him to do the same. Naturally, the fish could not see the angler, either.

The fisherman did just as he was told. He took great care not to breathe too loud when Little Three caught a fish that got by him and threw it in the basket. He was kept very busy, and soon became short of breath. Before they had gone a quarter of the way, the basket was full; Just threw the rest of the fish back into water again, because the spirit went to catch fish without any effort to see if there was a place to put them or not. Shortly after the two stepped onto the bank and ran shivers down the spine of the fisherman awesome spectacle of deep water that had been crossed. Returned home, cooked and ate half a fish, and put the other half designed according to the orders of the Spirit was given.

Every evening, except when the full moon, they went fishing, but the fisherman did not say anything about his wife. To avoid any suspicion, even went fishing during the day from time to time. But he won so much money that his wife became suspicious, and eventually found everything.

A night that made him asleep and watched to see what her husband would do. Saw him eating a fish with another person and then come into the bedroom and go to sleep. He there is no evidence, but when he was asleep he got up and saw what she had done.

The next day, bored a small hole in the wall plaster and watched the two men cooking fish. saw how they cooked only half of them, and thought to herself that if only they could keep the other half will have food for several days.

He had a plan, and the next night, when Little Three came back and put the pot on the fire, it suddenly went up in flames. The Spirit saw immediately that something was wrong and ran away. The fisherman was very angry, but not until she began to the room with a smile on her face, she knew that the pot was made of paper. Since then, the spirit never came to cook and eat fish.
Adapted from:


FOLKTALES CHINA (Folktales of the World) by Eberhard