The Tale of Two Fishes and a Frog

In a certain pond lived two fishes called Hundred-Wit and Thousand-Wit, and a frog named Single-Wit was their friend. The three of them liked to spend time together at the edge of the water, chatting and making jokes, and then they would dive back into the pond.

One evening at sunset, while they were talking, some fishermen came by carrying nets. They looked at the pond and said to one another, “This pond seems full of fish, and the water is shallow. We will come back at dawn.” Then they went home.

To the three friends, those words were as terrible as a bolt of lightning. They began to talk about what to do. The frog spoke first. “Hundred-Wit and Thousand-Wit, my dear friends, what shall we do? Run away, or stay and face it?”

Thousand-Wit laughed. “My good friend, don’t be frightened just because you have heard some talk. They may never come. And even if they do, I will save both of us with my cleverness. I know plenty of tricks in the water.”

“Thousand-Wit is right,” added Hundred-Wit. “A clever mind always finds a way out. We cannot leave our birthplace, the home of our ancestors, because of a few words. Don’t go. I will save you with my cleverness.”

“Well,” said the frog, “I only have a single wit, and it tells me to run. My wife and I are leaving for another pond tonight.” And that night, under cover of darkness, the frog and his wife moved to another pond.

At dawn the fishermen returned, looking like messengers of Death, and spread their nets right across the pond. Every fish, turtle, frog and crab in the water was caught. Hundred-Wit and Thousand-Wit were caught too, and for all their clever twists and turns they died in the nets.

The fishermen went home happily. One of them carried Hundred-Wit, who was heavy, on top of his head. Another carried Thousand-Wit dangling from a string.

Safe in the mouth of a water tank, the frog watched them pass and said to his wife: “Look, my dear! Hundred-Wit is riding on a head, and Thousand-Wit hangs from a string, but your little Single-Wit is still splashing in clear water.”

Where this story comes from

In Arthur W. Ryder’s 1925 Panchatantra this tale is called “Hundred-Wit, Thousand-Wit, and Single-Wit.” It belongs to Book V, “Ill-Considered Action,” where the man trapped under the wheel tells it to show that cleverness alone does not decide what happens to you.

Read the original: Arthur W. Ryder, The Panchatantra (1925), Internet Archive

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12; the fish die in nets and their bodies are carried away. Preview for readers sensitive to animal death.

A closer reading

The warning is unusually specific: the fishermen name both a place and a time, and they already carry nets. Single-Wit does not flee at a vague rumor. He responds to concrete evidence while there is still time to move.

The fishes rely on different assurances. Thousand-Wit expects his tricks to work; Hundred-Wit adds attachment to their ancestral home. Their many ‘wits’ fail because they postpone action until the net closes. The contrast is between timely judgment and overconfidence, rather than intelligence and stupidity.

Try this with the story

Make a timeline from sunset to dawn. Mark the available escape period and the moment it closes. Under the fishes’ speeches, underline a fact and circle a hope or assumption.

Talk about it

• What makes the fishermen’s threat credible?
• How do the two fishes justify staying in different ways?
• Why does the timing of the frog’s decision matter?

Related stories

• Frogs That Rode a Snake — another Panchatantra frog story
• The Four Learned Fools — Book V on learning without sense
• The Story of the Tittibha Birds and the Sea — small creatures facing a great danger