The fairies of Plouhinec

You fish in the Ria. You haul up your net. Before going home to port, count your fish aloud. Say «I have seventeen» when you have eighteen (because you hide one to avoid declaring) and no fairy shows you anything. Say «I have seventeen» and you have exactly seventeen, then a fairy waves to you from shore. She shows you where to cast next time. You double the catch — but must declare all.

In 1908 Yves Le Foll, fisherman of Plouhinec, saw his first fairy at thirty — he had fished honestly twenty years. His son Job, twelve, was with him. Yves to Job: «Did you see the fairy?» «No, father.» Yves: «When you are honest long enough, she shows. Not before.» Job fished twenty-two years honestly before seeing his first fairy at thirty-four. He told his daughter Annaïk, same age: «Wait.» Annaïk waited. She saw her fairy at twenty-eight — younger than her father and grandfather. She told her own daughter: «Honesty goes faster when one has had the example. Three generations: thirty, thirty-four, twenty-eight. You may see by twenty-two.»