In the quiet fishing village of Bethsaida, there was a legend passed down for generations. It was said that deep beneath the waters of the Sea of Galilee lived a fish with a single golden eye. But this was no ordinary fish—it was cursed, and whoever caught it would face a terrible fate. Yet, despite the warnings, the lure of the gold always kept fishermen looking for the strange fish.
The Unlucky Catch
One late afternoon, as the sun was setting low over the hills, a fisherman named Yohanan cast his nets into the sea. He had heard the tale many times as a boy but paid it no mind. Like many others, he thought the story was nothing more than a way to keep young, inexperienced fishermen from being careless on the water.
As Yohanan hauled his net in, he noticed something strange. The net felt heavy, but the weight wasn’t right—there wasn’t the familiar thrashing of a large school of fish. Instead, it was as if something enormous but silent was caught in the net. When he finally pulled it up, there it was: a single, massive fish, almost the size of a child. Its scales were a dull gray, except for its left eye, which shimmered like gold in the fading sunlight.
Yohanan’s heart raced. He had heard of this fish—the one with the golden eye. But the sight of it before him, so real and strange, filled him with both awe and fear. For a moment, he was tempted to throw it back, but the thought of the fortune he could make if he sold the golden eye was too much to resist. He grabbed his knife, carefully removed the gleaming eye, and tossed the fish back into the sea. The fish sank silently, and the water was still again.
Yohanan wrapped the golden eye in cloth and hid it in his boat. He would take it to the market in Tiberias and sell it to the wealthiest merchant he could find. He imagined the riches it would bring—no more nights toiling under the stars, no more struggles with torn nets or poor catches. This eye would change his life forever.
The Omen
That night, Yohanan anchored his boat in a small inlet near his home and went to sleep, already dreaming of the wealth that awaited him. But just before dawn, he was woken by a strange noise—a low, rhythmic thumping against the side of his boat, like something heavy brushing against the hull. Half-asleep, he went to investigate, but there was nothing. The water was calm, the night air still.
The next day, Yohanan returned to the water to fish. He noticed that his catch was meager, unusually so. Where there had once been abundant schools, now there were only a few sickly fish in his nets. Over the next week, things only got worse. His nets tore more frequently. The fish he caught were small, weak, or diseased, often unusable. His fellow fishermen began to notice his misfortune. “The golden eye,” they whispered when he wasn’t around. “It’s cursed. He’s angered the spirits of the lake.”
But Yohanan refused to believe it. He thought it was just bad luck—until the dreams began.
The Haunting
Each night, Yohanan dreamt of the fish with the golden eye. In his dreams, the fish grew larger and larger until it was bigger than his boat, its single remaining eye staring at him with a deep, unblinking sadness. The fish would circle his boat in silence, drawing closer with every turn, its gray body ghostlike in the moonlit water. No matter how far he tried to sail in the dream, the fish was always there, swimming just beneath the surface, its golden eye missing, leaving an empty, dark socket.
One night, the dream changed. The fish rose up from the water, massive and terrible, and whispered in a voice that sounded like the rushing wind on a stormy night: “Return what you have taken, or your line will die with you.”
Yohanan woke, drenched in sweat, his heart pounding. He didn’t believe in curses—or at least, he didn’t want to. But the fish in the lake were disappearing. His family was growing hungry, and the other fishermen had started avoiding him, fearing that his bad luck would spread to them. Desperate, he went to the village elders, confessing what he had done.
The elders were grim. They told Yohanan that the fish with the golden eye had been in the lake since the days of King Solomon. Some said it was a creation of the wise king himself, meant to guard the waters, while others believed it was a spirit of the lake, angered by those who disrespected its ancient power. Whatever it was, the message was clear: the balance had been broken, and unless it was restored, Yohanan’s line—and perhaps the entire village—would face ruin.
The Reckoning
Yohanan, filled with regret, took the golden eye from where he had hidden it and sailed out into the middle of the lake. The water was unnaturally still, and the air felt heavy. He whispered a prayer, asking forgiveness, and threw the golden eye into the depths where he had first caught the fish.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then the water began to churn, and from the depths, Yohanan saw the shadow of the fish rise up beneath his boat. But it did not surface. Instead, it swam beneath him once more, its massive body brushing lightly against the bottom of his boat as it disappeared into the deep.
Yohanan returned to shore, unsure if the curse had been lifted. But the next day, his nets were full again—more fish than he had seen in weeks. The curse had passed, but the village would never forget. And from that day forward, no fisherman ever again dared seek out the fish with the golden eye.
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