A Korean Folktale
Audio: The Ungrateful TigerThere was once a small Korean village that was being plagued by a fearsome tiger. The attacks became so bad that the villagers were too scared to leave their houses, even in the daytime. The village elders got together to work out what to do, because something had to be done.
After a night of discussion, argument and disagreement, they finally came to a decision. They would set traps for the tiger by digging deep holes around the perimeter of the village, fill each hole with a bit of red meat, and cover them up with branches and leaves.
The whole village set to work, each family providing whatever red meat they could spare. Then they waited in their houses. Waited for the tiger to come lurking.
The next morning, the nephew of the village chief, who had come from the city, arrived on foot. As he approached the village he heard an almighty roar. Cautiously, he approached and at the bottom of a pit was a miserable tiger.
“Oh, please please help me get out of here. I’m trapped and I’ll die if you don’t help me. If you help me, I would be eternally in your debt. Forever…”
The young man was confused. “ You promise you wont eat me?”
“Promise, cross my heart!”
The young man looked around and found a long branch sturdy enough for the tiger to grip onto. He lowered it into the pit and the tiger hauled himself up.
The tiger breathed a sigh of relief, then licked his lips, “Why thank you little snack, you’re just in time for tea.”
“But, but, but, you said you’d be eternally grateful! Forever! You promised not to eat me!”
“Everyone knows that you can’t trust the promise of a hungry tiger. And tigers are ALWAYS hungry.”
Just as he was about to pounce, the young man yelled, “WAIT! Lets ask that cow over there if you should keep your promise and NOT eat me.”
The tiger liked games, it made his kill so much more interesting, so he agreed to ask the cow.
The glum looking cow yawned. “Man makes me work hard in the field, then, when I’m too old to work, they make food and shoes out of me. Tiger, go ahead and eat him.”
The tiger prepared to attack, “STOOOOP!” yelled the young man. “I think we need a second opinion, lets ask that little rabbit over there.”
“This is your last chance juicy young man…”
The young man anxiously explained the situation to the little brown rabbit.
The rabbit had a little think then said. “Before I make my decision, I need to see exactly what happened.”
When they arrived at the deep pit, the rabbit said, “Now, show me exactly where you were when this young man passed by.”
The hungry tiger, impatient for his meal, leapt into the pit. “Well, I was in this deep pit, and I started roaring because I was stuck. I was stuck….in this deep, deep pit. I’m stuck! Again!” The tiger began roaring with rage.
The little brown rabbit quickly told the young man to go on his way, and to think next time before he decided to rescue another hungry tiger.
that was a good story becuase of how they worked hard on the story and how they work on it for a long time.
Comment by michael crunkleton — September 20, 2011 @ 2:26 pm
I think it was a cool story
Comment by Zack Lilley — December 9, 2011 @ 2:24 am
i think that it is a funny and good story.. good job to the author and story teller.
Comment by jazire notice — January 10, 2012 @ 3:04 am
I think that the story was good. But i think the guy was stupid for rescuing the tiger that causes a lot of trouble in the village.
Comment by lukias willaford — January 10, 2012 @ 3:24 am
The boy did not know the tiger was attacking the village . He thinks he did the right thing in his mind, all he saw was a helpless tiger who needed help. The tiger was smart and got the better of the boy who knew noting about the villages delima. Its easy to be fooled in the world…
Comment by jacob k — January 11, 2012 @ 10:10 pm
I think the story was a good story
Comment by Tyrelle w — January 24, 2012 @ 11:33 pm
i tought it was cool and funny
Comment by hjos — March 7, 2012 @ 11:05 pm
This was a funny story and was really wierd why a human would save a tige anyway.But other than that…………. a pretty good story:)
Comment by allstar4216 — March 12, 2012 @ 7:53 am
nice story…im going to tell it to my grand daughter and neighbour…
Comment by Fauziah ismail — March 19, 2012 @ 5:41 pm
The story is very fascinating.I am going to tell my family about this website so that they can read your story. Story teller Sheila,I wish I can be great storyteller like you.
Comment by Jane Hans — June 20, 2012 @ 11:00 pm
i love the fable
Comment by gabrielle elizabeth — November 1, 2012 @ 7:34 pm
cool story
Comment by preciousmontague — February 26, 2013 @ 12:06 am
THE STORY IS GOOD
Comment by GRACE — April 9, 2013 @ 2:28 am
this story is great
Comment by ashley — May 13, 2013 @ 10:03 pm
i love this story and it is good and i loved it
Comment by Alice — October 8, 2013 @ 1:13 am
This is a nice story, I am using it for a speech and I am very excited to share it! Thank you:)
Comment by Jamie G. — November 30, 2013 @ 7:29 am
cool storty
Comment by zack anderson — March 11, 2014 @ 1:52 am
i like you story from little kids
Comment by elizabeth martinez — March 26, 2014 @ 8:42 pm
cool story
Comment by shymez — March 31, 2014 @ 7:41 pm
i thought it was good
Comment by anthony — April 11, 2014 @ 12:55 am
I like this story this story is great.
Comment by Gabriella Martinez — April 17, 2014 @ 2:38 am
i like the story
Comment by codie odom — May 12, 2014 @ 10:16 pm
good story
Comment by Andrew Johnson — October 22, 2014 @ 8:51 pm
It was a good story.
Comment by jhon — October 29, 2014 @ 12:01 am
I think that this story is very good and tell’s us how not to trust some one who ask you for help but then they don’t help you out in the end.
Comment by chance_the_rapper — October 29, 2014 @ 12:26 am
this is a cool and funny story. It had me roaring with laughter
Comment by William F — November 5, 2014 @ 10:30 am
this was a good story oh my gosh i love this story!!!!!!!!!
Comment by destinee lynette carroll — April 24, 2015 @ 11:19 pm
clever story. Iam going to tell it in school.
Comment by nandini — July 16, 2016 @ 12:19 am
bro that is a great story dudes
Comment by MLG dude — November 16, 2016 @ 10:22 pm
The story was really good.
Comment by Pogoman — February 21, 2017 @ 2:59 pm
i like this story
Comment by jim — August 7, 2018 @ 9:01 am
Who was the author of this story?
Comment by Antonette — November 1, 2019 @ 12:20 pm
This is a folktale so it was authored by thousands of people down the centuries. But this version was written by Julie Wee.
Comment by Sheila — November 1, 2019 @ 12:57 pm
Was the tiger cunning, foolish, cooperative or understanding?
I can’t tell… 🙁
Comment by Michael Jackson — December 11, 2020 @ 5:30 am