WHEN his wife gutted the fish, it proved to have a pebble lodged inside, and as the pebble was pretty she sent her husband to the market with it, hoping for a few pennies.

‘Five silver pieces,’ was the jeweller’s unexpected offer. ‘You’re making fun of me’ complained our man, who wanted to get his pennies and go. ‘Very well,’ said the jeweller snappishly, ‘ten silver pieces’. Injured silence. ‘Very well, twenty’. Still our man said nothing, but a glorious suspicion was forming in his mind. Fifty, seventy-five, a hundred... Eventually, the jeweller thumped down a bag in front of him. ‘Three hundred silver pieces. Take it or leave it.’ He took it.

‘See what the God of the Christians has done for you!’ his wife exclaimed when he came home. ‘He has repaid your investment sixfold!’ The miracle so impressed her husband that he became a Christian, and gave abundant thanks for the money, but still more for the blessing of a prudent wife.