And when the breeding season came, he refused to join in the spawning, saying,"I've swum around the entire world. And now I know how many fish there are in the world. I can't be interested in herrings anymore."Eventually, one of the oldest of the herrings swam up to him and said, "Listen, if you don't spawn with us, some herrings eggs will go unfertilized and will not turn into healthy young herrings. If you don't live with your family, you'llmake them sad and if you don't eat, you'll die."

But the herring said, "I don't mind. Ive been everywhere there is to go, Ive seen everything there is to see, and now I know everything there is to know."The old fish shook his head. "No one has ever seen everything there is to see," he said. "Nor known everything there is to know.""Look," said the herring, "I've swum through the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Java Sea, the Coral Sea, the Great Pacific Ocean, the Siberian Sea, and the frozen Arctic. Tell me, what else is there for me to see or know?”

"I don't know," said the old herring. "But there may be something."

Well just then, a fishing boat came by, and all the herrings were caught in a net and taken to market that very day. And a man bought the herring and ate it for his supper, and he never knew that it had swum right around the world and had seen everything there was to see, and knew everything there was to know.