An old man followed by a young boy came to the riverside. The old man held a bucket in one hand and a tarp in the other. The young boy chased a grasshopper while the old man laid the tarp out on the beach and set the bucket down next to it. Then he went to check the net while beckoning the youth to his side.

The old man stooped down by the net and lifted it a few centimeters, causing the fish caught in it to struggle. The young boy laughed and tried touching one of the fish, but flinched as the fish suddenly convulsed in another attempt to escape.

The old man entered the water upstream of the net, the water went up to his waist in the center of the river. The youth was content with slipping his feet into the water and watching the old man. The old man allowed the water to submerge his body completely as he dived down to the bottom of the net. There he lifted a stone that was holding the bottom of the net down. How shocking, the traitorous stones on the shore had undercover agents below.

Freeing the net from the clutches of these shameless stones who chose to hide their traitorous intentions, the old man raised the bottom of the net up. He folded the net in half to keep the fish caught in-between the two sides, using a bit of twine to keep the sides together. Then he relieved the stones on the shore of their duty. Finally, he brought it to the shore and dragged it onto the tarp and began sorting the catch.

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The old man worked quickly to toss the fish into the bucket while the youth played around with the debris that was caught in the net like shells and stones. After they were done, the remaining debris was tossed unceremoniously into the river while the old man reinstalled the net in the river. As for the rock, it had caught the eye of the youth and was in a pile of shiny stones and shells.

When they packed up to leave, the youth realized the rock was too big and heavy to carry back. Of course, such a young child wouldn’t be able to endure how grand the rock was. The old man noticed the youth’s struggle and decided to replace one of the stones holding up the net with the rock; that way the youth could easily find it again every time they went to collect the catch.