The Foolish Bear

There lived a bear by a riverside in a jungle. One day, he felt hungry. He came out of his den to look for food.

The bear went to the river to catch some fish. Standing by the side of the river, he stared into the water. Soon enough, he saw a fish. He pounced on the fish, and caught it. But then, the bear thought, “This is too small a fish to fill my stomach. I must catch a bigger fish.”

So, he let off the small fish. He waited for some time, till he caught another fish. This time too the fish was small. He thought that the small fish would not fill his belly. So he again let the fish go off.

This way he caught many small fish, but let all of them go off, still thinking that the small fish would not fill his belly. By sunset, the bear had not caught any big fish.

What was worse, having kept standing for very long, the bear now felt tired.

He slowly began to feel sorry for having let off so many fish. He realized that all those small fish, together would have filled up his belly, but now it was too late. He had to remain hungry that day.

Moral : A Small Fish in Hand is worth a Big Fish in the Water.