“Having mended the net, he cast it into the sea, and waited for it to sink. When he pulled, he found that it was so heavy that he was unable to haul it. He shook it and found that it was caught at the bottom. Saying “There is no power or strength save in God, the Almighty, the Magnificent,” he took off his clothes and dove for the net. He worked at it until he managed to free it, and as he hauled it to the shore, he felt that there was something heavy inside. He struggled with the net, until he opened it and found a large long necked brass jar, with a lead stopper bearing the mark of a seal ring. When the fisherman saw the jar, he was happy and said to himself, “I will sell it in the copper market, for it must be worth at least two measures of wheat.”
The fisherman was ecstatic to bring his catch to the local merchant to sell the jar for its metal. He lugged the heavy jar across the sand away from the sea. But as he reached land, he had no more strength to haul his catch to the town for the merchant. He was so tired from diving down to the jar, hauling it to shore, and dragging it across the sand that he collapsed from exhaustion. The fisherman awoke to the sight of the merchant, who had been taking a stroll by the sea. “Are you okay, fisherman?” the merchant asked the fisherman as he slapped his face to wake him. “Yes,” the fisherman with excitement, “I just caught this jar at sea and was actually planning to bring it to town for you. Look at all this brass, and this seal ring. And feel how heavy this is. There must be something inside, and it is not just water. It is far to heavy to be water, it must be valuable. It may even be gold dinars! Help me open the jar!” The merchant replied with skepticism, “Yes fisherman, the metal is valuable. But whatever is in is probably worthless. Bring it to my shop and we will open it there. If we open it here, the contents might be too hard to put back into the jar and bring to my shop.”
“You must help me haul this to your shop, it is too heavy for me to do alone. But I assure you, there must be something amazing inside,” the fisherman promised the merchant. The two men hauled the jar all through town to the merchant’s shop, where he could then sell it to the copper market. It took them many hours. When they finally arrived at the shop, there had been a copper trader already waiting to see if the merchant had anything for him to trade. “Look here,” said the merchant, “a heavy brass with a lead stopper. You could melt this brass into anything you want. But first, I must open it and see what is inside, then pay this fisherman who found it.”
“Well, I’ll buy the jar off of you, but it must not be opened. You might break the jar trying to open it,” the copper trader said slyly, hoping to keep whatever is inside for himself. “No, the fisherman shot back, “whatever is inside of here is valuable and I will not sell this jar to either of you until I see what is inside.” The merchant and copper trader agreed to open the jar to see if there is anything valuable that the merchant can buy from the fisherman. At first, the fisherman tried to pull off the lead stopper, but it would not budge. Then the merchant tried, and he could not pull it either. “Let me try,” the copper trader said, “I do this all the time.”
The copper trader tapped on the back of the jar to put pressure against the lead stopper to help open it. He pulled the stopper off with ease and poured the contents on the floor. A heap of sand from inside the jar formed on the floor. “Look what you have done to my shop. I told you there was nothing in here,” the merchant barked at the fisherman. But the sand began move in front of their eyes and formed into the shape of a large monstrous person. All the men gasped when they realized what it was. “A demon!” the merchant shrieked.
“You are a lucky man,” the demon said to the copper trader who opened the jar. “Why?” he asked. The demon replied, “You get to decide how you would like to die. I waited eight hundred years for someone to open this jar and release me from this tiny cramped jar. Then, I made a vow to kill whoever finally opens this jar. “
“But no, the merchant gave me this jar to open, I only opened it for him. And we released you,” the copper trader said defensively. The merchant shot back, “No demon, this fisherman found this jar and gave it to me. He discovered it. I am innocent, blame the fisherman!”
“So then it is you the fisherman who must die. How would you like to die?” the demon asked.
“But demon, the fisherman acted in good faith. He released you from your confinement in the jar. Let him go,” the copper trader pleaded, begging for sympathy for the fisherman who found this otherwise valuable jar. The devil shook his head and refused.
The merchant also felt sorry for the fisherman who brought him this valuable jar in god faith to sell to the copper trader, and said, “Demon, I have a proposition. If I could tell you a story so interesting and so crazy, could you release this man of half of your claim against him?”
“Go ahead,” the demon said. The merchant cleared his throat and began to tell his tale…
