The Tiger and Persimmon

The Tiger and the Persimmon
Told by Ma Hĕ-Song; Gĕsĕng (1925)
From Folk Tales From Korea (1952)
Collected and translated by Zong In-SobKitsunetsuki

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One night a tiger came down to a village to eat a child and peeped into the window of a certain house. The child was crying, and the mother said, "A tiger is coming for you!" but the child did not stop. When the tiger saw this he thought to himself, "The child is not afraid of me at all!" The mother then said, "If you stop crying, I'll give you a dry persimmon." The child immediately stopped crying, and the tiger thought, "What a fearful thing a dried persimmon must be!" and gave up the idea of eating the child, and went to the cow-shed to steal a cow. Just at that moment a robber came, intending also to steal a cow. Mistaking the tiger for a cow he got astride him and rode off. The tiger thought, "This must be the persimmon!" and ran off at full speed. The people of the house had heard the noise and raised a hue and cry, but the robber whipped up his "cow" and escaped. When day dawned the robber realized his error and jumped off the tiger in a panic. The tiger also felt relieved and flew off like an arrow.

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