|
The Tale of the fisherman
and the Tourist
A tourist
looks on a most idyllic picture: a fisherman dozing in the sun in his
rowing boat that he has pulled out of the waves which come rolling up
the sandy beach. The tourist's camera clicks and the fisherman wakes.
The tourist asks: The weather is great and there's plenty of fish,
so why are you lying around instead of going out and catching more?
The fisherman replies: Because I caught enough this morning.
But just imagine, the tourist says, you could go out
there three or four times a day and bring home three or four times as
much fish! And then you know what could happen? The fisherman shakes
his head. After a year you could buy yourself a motorboat,
says the tourist. After two years you could buy a second one, and
after three years you could have a cutter or two. And just think! One
day you might be able to build a freezing plant or a smoke house. You
might eventually even get your own helicopter for tracing shoals of fish
and guiding your fleet of cutters, or you could buy your own trucks to
ship your fish to the capital, and then . . .
And then? asks the fisherman.
And then, the tourist continues triumphantly, you'd
could spend time sitting at the beachside, dozing in the sun and looking
at the beautiful ocean! The fisherman looks at the tourist: But
that is exactly what I was doing before you came along!
(slightly abridged
from an original
story by Heinrich Böll)
|