The fishing vessel Odysseus is heading to the port. They’ve caught only a single anchovy, but report that there are 300 kilograms of mackerel on deck. Chief Zankov tells his superior, Petrov, that they’ve caught a shoal of several thousand tons of mackerel. Petrov reports to the director of the fish processing plant that the sailors have filled their nets with bonito, even though it’s not the season for it. In turn, the director and the chief engineer decide to say that the bonito is as big as a dolphin – when in fact, the dolphin is as big as a whale – and so they might as well say they’ve caught a whale.