One afternoon, Anansi, the spider thought that he could trick a turtle into doing his work for him. He thought that the turtle was slow and stupid. “Let’s go fishing,” he suggested. “Very well,” said the turtle, who was clever. The turtle said that he would get tired while making nets. So, they decided to share their work. The turtle showed Anansi how to weave a net and he himself lay down on the riverbank. Anansi made nets as his friend pretended to be tired. They caught four fishes. The turtle asked Anansi to take all the fish and he would take the next day’s catch. Greedily imagining the next day’s catch, Anansi said, “No. You take these and I’ll take tomorrow’s fish.” But the next day, they could not catch any fish as the nets had been rotting. The turtle asked Anansi to take the rotten nets to the market and get money in return. When Anansi went to sell the rotten nets in the marketplace, people started beating him with sticks. Anansi never tried to trick the turtle again.
Anansi Goes Fishing
