Like many others in the world, there was a fisherman who lived with his
wife. One day he was fishing and caught a fine fish (at that time all
the animals and everything used to speak), and the fish said to him:
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"Spare my life! Spare my life! I will give you all that you shall
desire."
And this poor man spared its life, and went home without having caught
anything else. When he came home his wife asks him:
"Where are your fish?"
He tells her how that he had caught a fish, and that it had begged
him to spare its life, and that he had left it in the water. His wife
says to him:
"Have you lost your head then? After having caught a fish to put it
back again into the water!"