The Small Fish's Promise

A fisherman, hauling in his net after a long morning's work, found among his catch a single small fish, barely worth the effort of cleaning and cooking compared to the larger ones caught alongside it. The small fish, desperate, pleaded with him earnestly to throw it back into the river, promising that if given time to grow, it would become a far larger, more valuable catch worth returning for later.

"Think of it," the fish urged, "a small meal now, or a much larger one later if you simply let me go and grow. Surely the larger future catch is worth more than what little I could offer you today." The fisherman considered the proposal for a moment, turning the small fish over in his hand.

"Your promise may well be true," he finally said, "but a fish I can already see and hold in my hand right now is worth more to me than a bigger one I can only imagine catching again someday, in a river I cannot control and a future I cannot guarantee. You might grow larger as you say, or you might be caught by another fisherman first, or never come near my net again at all." He kept the small fish for his evening meal, having decided that a modest certainty in hand was worth more than a grander promise he had no real way to collect on later.