ryn jin now desired to punish the tai, but the happy hunter begged him not to do so; since his lost hook was thus happily recovered he did not wish to make more trouble for the poor tai. it was indeed the tai who had taken the hook, but he had already suffered enough for his fault, if fault it could be called. what had been done was done in heedlessness and not by intention. the happy hunter said he blamed himself; if he had understood how to fish properly he would never have lost his hook, and therefore all this trouble had been caused in the first place by his trying to do something which he did not know how to do. so he begged the sea king to forgive his subject.