You make your way around the pond to the side where the man is sleeping. You nudge him, but he doesn't wake up.

Just then, the line on his fishing pole begins to move. A fish may have taken the bait. You nudge him again a bit harder and tell him that there's a fish on the end of his line. But he just continues sleeping.

What now, you wonder. Should you reel in the fish for him, wait, or simply go on your way. But before you can decide, he wakes up.

"A dilemma, isn't it?" he says, as he picks up the pole and begins reeling in the fish himself. "Do you do another man's work for him or not?"

You tell him what you would have done if he hadn't woken.

"Well," he says, "that would have been your way, wouldn't it? But you didn't really have the chance to decide, because I 'woke up.' Actually, I was awake the whole time. I saw you coming round the pond toward me. You might say I was baiting you, not the fish."

As he pulls the fish in, you ask him why he'd want to test you.

"Well," he says again, "I know you came here to ask for my help. Maybe I wanted to see how willing you'd be to help me first. Big old fish, isn't it? Why don't you stay and have lunch with me?"


(If you stay for lunch, turn to page 19; if you would rather not stay for lunch, turn to page 23.)