Hundred-Wit, Thousand-Wit, and Single-Wit

In a pond lived two fish named Hundred-Wit and Thousand-Wit, along with their friend, a frog named Single-Wit. One evening they overheard fishermen planning to return at dawn with nets, having judged the pond full of fish and shallow enough to sweep clean.

Alarmed, the frog asked his friends whether they should flee that very night. Thousand-Wit laughed off the danger, boasting that his thousand tricks would surely save them if trouble came. Hundred-Wit agreed, confident that a hundred clever schemes were more than enough for any crisis.

The frog admitted he had only a single idea, and it was simply to leave at once — so that night, he and his wife swam away to another pond, taking no chances.

At dawn the fishermen returned and swept the pond with their nets. Both clever fish, for all their boasted wit, were caught and carried away, struggling uselessly against the net until the end.

From the safety of his new home, the frog watched the fishermen pass by carrying his two brilliant friends, and said quietly to his wife that a single wit, acted on in time, had outlasted a thousand clever tricks that were never used.