A long time ago, in North Sumatra, lived a poor young man in a valley. He had no parents, but the valley was beautiful, and anything he planted there grew wonderfully. He lived by farming and fishing in the river near his home. The food he made was not special, but he never went hungry.

One afternoon, after working hard in the fields, he went fishing in the river. Today was not his day, though, and after hours of waiting, he still hadn’t caught a single fish. This had never happened before. Disappointed, he pulled his rod out of the water. But just as his rod was leaving the water, a fish bit it. He pulled it out, and was very happy to see a pretty little goldfish on the end of the rod. The young man hurried home to cook the fish. 

He got home, put the goldfish on the kitchen table, and ran out to get some firewood from the garden. As he went, he licked his lips and thought about the fish. 

But when he came back, the goldfish was gone! And where it had been, there sat some pieces of gold. Then came a soft voice behind him.

 Good evening

The man turned around and saw a beautiful woman standing in front of him.

Who are you, oh beautiful lady? And where did you come from?

I was that goldfish on your table. But I am not ordinary goldfish, as you can see. And those gold coins were my scales.

She thanked the poor young man for breaking her curse and to show her gratitude. She was willing to be his wife under the condition that the young man should not tell anybody about her being a fish once or a terrible disaster would be fallen on him.

So the man and the woman got married and after a while the woman gave birth to a baby boy, who they named Samosir. The boy grew up to be a child of great appetite and very naughty. He was always hungry and would eat all the food at the table and would not even leave any food for his parents to eat.

One day Samosir was asked to bring food to his father who was working on the field. It was a long walk through the fields, and as he went, Samosir started to feel hungry.