One evening several tourists who were staying at a hotel in Manchester were having dinner in the hotel restaurant. Fish was brought and while they were eating it, some of them told interesting stories about finding rings and other things inside fish. An old man who had only listened to their stories and never spoken a word, suddenly said that he would like to tell them an interesting story, too. And this is what he told them:
“When I was a young man, I lived in New York and was going to marry a beautiful young girl whose name was Alice. About two month before our marriage I was sent to England for a fortnight. I went to say goodbye to Alice and gave her a ring. She gave me hers and said that she would be waiting for me. But I had to stay in England six months, and not a fortnight as I had planned. Late in September my work was done at last and I was able to leave for New York.
Next morning, when I was already aboard the steamer, I was looking through the morning newspaper, and what do you think I saw? Alice was going to marry another man! I couldn’t believe my eyes, but it was true. I was so angry that I threw her ring into the sea.
I was having dinner at a restaurant in New York a few days later, and while I was eating the fish, I bit on something hard. What do you think it was?”
“ The ring!” all the listeners cried out at once.
“No,” said the old man sadly, ‘It was a fish-bone”.