The next morning, the wife woke up and watched the sun rise through her enormous palace windows. She watched it climb above the horizon, turning the sky from pink to gold.

An idea formed in her mind. A terrible, final, inevitable idea.

"Husband," she said. "I want to control the sun and the moon. I want to make the sun rise and set. I want to be like God."

The fisherman went pale. "Wife, please. This is madness. You cannot be God. Nobody can be God. Please, I am begging you — be satisfied with what you have!"

"GO TO THE FISH!" she screamed. "I WANT TO BE GOD!"

The fisherman walked to the sea for the last time. What he saw terrified him. The sea was a nightmare. The waves were as high as mountains. The water was black as ink. Thunder crashed. Lightning split the sky. The wind howled like a thousand wolves.

The fisherman stood on the shore, his clothes whipping in the storm, and called out with a voice full of shame and dread:

"Oh fish of the sea, come to me! My wife has a wish, and it won't let her be!"

The golden fish appeared in the boiling waves. His golden scales glowed in the darkness.

"What does she want now?" asked the fish.

The fisherman could barely speak. "She... she wants to be God. She wants to control the sun and the moon."

The fish looked at the fisherman for a long time. Then he said simply:

"Go home."

The fisherman walked home through the storm. When he arrived, the palace was gone. The golden throne was gone. The servants, the soldiers, the bishops, the crown — all gone.

In their place was the old, miserable little shack by the sea. His wife was sitting inside, wearing her old clothes, looking at the bare walls.

Everything was exactly as it had been before. As if nothing had ever happened.

The fisherman sat down next to his wife. For a long time, neither of them spoke. Outside, the storm faded. The sea became calm. The sun broke through the clouds.

And there they lived, for the rest of their days, in the miserable little shack by the sea. Because they had been given everything — and it was not enough. And when everything is not enough, you end up with nothing.