The Fish That Returned the Ring

Long ago in a Khmer village by the river, there lived a poor fisherman who owned nothing but his net and a small ring from his late mother. One day, while casting his net, the ring slipped from his finger and fell into the deep water. The fisherman searched and cried, but the river kept his ring.

Weeks later, he caught a large fish tangled in his net. As he raised the fish, he saw fear in its eyes and felt pity.
“Go back to the river,” he said softly, and released it.

That night, he dreamed of the river shining like silver. The next morning, while washing his net, he felt something hard caught in the mesh—it was his mother’s ring. Inside the water nearby, the same fish leapt once and disappeared.

From that day on, the fisherman never lacked food. He told his children:
“The river remembers kindness.”

Moral: Kindness given freely always finds its way back.