Article by Praewa Limpiwatana (Thailand)
Blog Correspondent of ASEAN-Korea Centre
Once upon a time, there were 2 fishermen, named In and Na. They were good friends who always went out to fish together. Unfortunately, they didn’t get a lot of fish every day. Some days, they could eat a lot but some days not..
So, one day they decided that they shouldn’t go fish together. One should go fishing upstream and another should go downstream. If any of them got the fish, no matter what, they will share it.
In went downstream and spent all day fishing but he couldn’t find any fish. Na went upstream, and not so long ago after that, he got a huge fish. Happily, Na came back and found In sitting disappointed.
“I found nothing”, said In. “This is really a waste of time. Did you get anything?”
Na laughed and said, “You spent all day and got nothing? See this? I got this huge fish for us. I’ll take the head part and you may take the other half.”
In listened to Na and got angry; “Why can’t I take the head part?”
“Because I caught this fish.”, said Na. “You didn’t catch any fish, so I can take the head part and you take the tail part.”
In replied, “Yes, you are right. But why didn’t you say this at first? We agreed that we would share the fish no matter who catch it. Then, why do I have to take the tail part while you get the head?”
Nobody agreed to give up the head part, so they ended up arguing.
At the moment, Yoo, who just came back from running his errands, walked pass the two men.
They, then, asked him to judge who should get which part.
Yoo listened to the story and told them that he can help but they would have to listen and follow what he would do. The two agreed. Yoo took the knife out and cut the fish into 3 part; head, middle and tail.
He said, “Na should take the head part because he was the one who caught the fish. In, you take the tail part. And I, as the judge, I’ll take the middle part.”
In and Na couldn’t say anything because he made a promise. So they had to let Yoo take the middle part.
“We shouldn’t have made this a big deal. We could just share the fish. But now, Yoo took it away for free. This shouldn’t be happened.
From that day on, the two men never fought over the fish.
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