Dear Piya,

a search on the Web reveals at least two other variants of the simile:

[1] "One day, when a turtle came down into the water, it told a group
of fish about how much fun it was to be on land: The lights and colors
were pretty, and there were none of the difficulties that came from
being in the water.

"The fish were intrigued, and wanted to see what it was like on land,
so they asked the turtle, 'Is it very deep on land?'

"The turtle answered, 'What would be deep about it? It's land.'

"The fish: 'Are there lots of waves on land?'

"The turtle: 'What would be wavy about it? It's land.'

"The fish: 'Is it murky with mud?'

"The turtle: 'What would be murky about it? It's land.'

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/dune/giftsheleft.html

[2] One day the turtle left the pond to spend a few hours on the
shore. When he returned to the water, he told the fish of his
experiences on dry land, but the fish would not believe him.

http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dsantina/tree/part1.txt

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Piya Tan wrote:

I distinctly remember remember the simile in dialogue form decades
back, and somehow the title Milindapanha keeps popping into my mind,
but as I said neither macch* or kacchap* or kumm* (searches with
wildcard) yield any references in CSCD.