The man and the boy pulled and pulled, and at last they brought their catch on the shore. It was an enormous fish, as long as Ali was tall. The father said: “I will go and fetch the cart, so we can put the fish on it. While I tell your mother—she will be glad—you must stay here and guard our catch.”

A new friend. Left alone, the boy studied the great fish. Did it look at him with imploring eyes? Were not those tears that dripped from those eyes? It was sobbing! It was like a person. The boy’s heart was moved. He could never eat this fish!

In an impulse of compassion, he pushed the heavy fish back over the edge of the bank into the sea. But then he realized that he had robbed his parents, and all his little brothers and sisters, of the food they so badly needed. What had he done! He knew that he could not face his father, who worked so hard for them. So he decided to go away and no longer be a burden on his parents.

All day he walked along the beach. At sunset he sat down near a rock that jutted into the sea. Suddenly, from behind the rock, a handsome young man appeared. “Peace be with you,” he said, and sat down beside Ali. “I am alone,” he continued. “I have lost both my parents.”

Ali told the stranger of his own short life. Afterward his new friend said, “Let us go to the city together and find some food there.”

“Is there a city nearby?” asked Ali, who had never seen such a place before. “Yes, on the other side of this rock,” said the stranger. “Come, let’s go, follow me.”

They waded through the sea around the rock, and there, on the horizon, Ali saw the great city, houses, palaces, fortresses, and mosques with white minarets. They walked toward it while the moon rose from the sea.

The merchant. When they arrived in the city they found a room in an inn. The innkeeper served them a rich meal of rice and mutton. Ali had never had so much to eat in his life, and he said timidly: “I cannot pay for this, I am not rich.”