The fishing boat came back to the Puri shore just after dawn, and Aarav could tell from far off that something was different.

Usually the boats came in low and heavy, the men shouting and laughing, the silver catch spilling and flashing in the morning sun. Buyers crowded the beach. The whole shore smelled of salt and excitement.

But this morning Dadu's boat rode high on the water — light, almost empty. The nets had come up nearly bare. A storm out at sea two nights ago had scattered the fish, and the whole fleet had returned with barely enough to fill a single basket between them.

Aarav ran down the wet sand, his heart sinking. He knew what an empty net meant. Less money. A thin week ahead. He braced himself for Dadu to be angry, or at least sad.

But his grandfather climbed down from the boat the same way he always did — unhurried, steady, brushing the salt from his grey beard. He coiled the near-empty net with the same care he gave a full one. He greeted the other fishermen with the same easy nod.

"Dadu, the net's empty!" Aarav burst out. "Aren't you upset?"

Dadu sat down on the upturned hull and patted the wood beside him. Aarav flopped down.

"Tell me," Dadu said, gazing at the rolling waves, "the day last month when the net came up so full we could barely haul it in — was I jumping and shouting?"

Aarav thought about it. "No. You were... the same as always. Calm."

"And today, the net is empty. Am I weeping and tearing my hair?"

"No," Aarav admitted. "You're the same as always too."

Dadu smiled into his beard. "There you have it, little one. The sea gives, and the sea holds back. A full net one day, an empty one the next — that is the sea's business, not mine. If I let my happiness ride up and down with the catch, I would be tossed about worse than this boat in a storm. The real treasure is not in the net, Aarav. It is here." He tapped his chest. "A heart that stays steady whether the day brings plenty or nothing — that is something no storm can scatter."

Aarav looked at his grandfather's calm face, then out at the wide, restless sea, and thought that Dadu's steady heart might be the richest catch of all.