--- title: "The Fisherman and the Genie" story_id: "8c2b8df6-9295-421a-a845-ab2fdd709704" text_id: "5f892565-3072-4a52-bc4f-6a4fc5a54044" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 3 part_count: 5 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?part=3" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Fisherman and the Genie > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie) Version: Modernized ## The Story of the Husband and the Parrot A good man had a beautiful wife, whom he loved passionately and never left if he could help it. One day, when important business forced him to go away, he went to a place where all kinds of birds are sold and bought a parrot. This parrot not only spoke well, but it had the gift of telling everything that had happened in front of it. He brought it home in a cage, and asked his wife to put it in her room, and take great care of it while he was away. Then he departed. On his return he asked the parrot what had happened during his absence, and the parrot told him some things which made him scold his wife. She thought that one of her slaves must have been telling tales about her, but they told her it was the parrot, and she decided to take revenge on him. When her husband next went away for one day, she told one slave to turn a small mill by hand beneath the bird’s cage. She told another to pour water down from above the cage, and a third to move a mirror from left to right before the bird’s eyes by candlelight. The slaves did this for part of the night, and did it very well. The next day when the husband came back he asked the parrot what he had seen. The bird replied, "My good master, the lightning, thunder and rain disturbed me so much all night long, that I cannot tell you what I have suffered." The husband knew there had been no rain or thunder that night and was convinced the parrot was lying. He took the bird out of the cage and threw it so roughly onto the ground that he killed it. Yet he was sorry afterwards, for he found that the parrot had spoken the truth. "When the Greek king had finished the story of the parrot," the fisherman told the genie, "he said to the vizir, 'And so, vizir, I will not listen to you. I will protect the physician to avoid the husband’s regret after killing the parrot.' But the vizir was determined. 'Your Majesty,' he replied, 'the parrot’s death was nothing. When a king’s life is at stake, it is better to sacrifice the innocent than save the guilty. There is no doubt about it: the physician Douban wishes to assassinate you. My zeal prompts me to tell Your Majesty. If I am wrong, I deserve to be punished as a vizir was once punished.' 'What had the vizir done to deserve punishment?' asked the Greek king. 'I will tell Your Majesty, if you will do me the honour of listening,' answered the vizir." ## Parts - [1](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown) - [2](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown&part=2) — The Story of the Greek King and the Physician Douban - [3](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown&part=3) — The Story of the Husband and the Parrot - [4](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown&part=4) — The Story of the Vizir Who Was Punished - [5](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown&part=5) — The Story of the Young King of the Black Isles ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text The Arabian Nights Entertainments, 1898, Longmans, Green and Co. - editor: Andrew Lang ## Illustration [Edmund Dulac](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/9419ad20-46bd-4d54-a7fd-1e7e32483892) — Stories from the Arabian Nights, 1907, Hodder & Stoughton, London ## Reading music Mijana Bassam Jalgha (oud) Hassane Slaibi (flute) Remix ⟷ Culture (production) [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/the-fisherman-and-the-genie?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)