ABSTRACT
There once was a very fair-minded man. One day, he was out in the fields when he
came across a large and beautiful turtle. Now the fair-minded man was very
hungry, and he liked turtle soup.
He put the turtle in his sack, ignoring its pleas, and took it back to his home and
boiled a large pan of water over a fire. But, being true to his nature (and perhaps
being aware that to kill a turtle is very bad luck), when he took the unhappy animal
out of his sack, instead of throwing it straight into the pan he carefully placed a
bamboo rod across the boiling water and the turtle equally carefully on the middle
of it saying: ‘Mr Turtle, if you can walk across the pan along the stick without falling
in – I shall set you free!’
