In Korean folktales, some animals are willing to thank people for helping them out, and return the favor. Today’s story is about a toad that repaid its master’s kindness, even sacrificing its own life.

Once upon a time, there lived a young maiden who had a good heart. Although she was poor, she worked hard every day and tried to lead a good life. One rainy day, a toad jumped into the kitchen where the girl was cooking food. Startled at the ugly creature, she tried to drive it out of the kitchen. But the toad lay motionless on the floor, as if dead, only blinking its bulging eyes. Suddenly, the girl felt sorry for the animal. She thought it had nowhere to go in the heavy rain. Carefully, she gave the toad some food. It must have been very hungry as it gobbled up the food in the twinkling of an eye. As there was no food left, the toad slowly moved to the corner of the kitchen and squatted down. Obviously, it wasn’t going to leave even after satisfying its hunger.

The lonely girl and the toad began to live together. From that day on, she fed the toad regularly and the animal grew fast. As time went by, she became quite fond of the toad. Now she couldn’t even think of her life without her animal friend.

Unfortunately, her village had been holding a terrible ritual for years. Every year, a virgin had been sacrificed to a mysterious monster that lived on the nearby mountain. If the village people refused to offer this human sacrifice, the monster would change the weather to cause a severe drought or heavy floods throughout the year. Villagers had no choice but to repeat this dreadful rite to avoid disaster.

One year, the girl who fed the toad was chosen as the sacrifice. She was frightened, of course, but she knew that it was the only way to keep the whole village alive. On the eve of the ritual day, the woman cooked the last meal for herself and her beloved toad. She spoke to her friend, shedding tears, “Tomorrow, I’ll be gone. There will be no one to take care of you, my poor toad.” The toad cried with her, as if understanding what she said.

The next day, people took the girl to the shrine deep in the mountains where the beast was believed to live. They placed her before the altar and left the place quickly. Before long, she felt the biting cold wind on her face. What she saw was a long, black shadow and the blue light shining in the monster’s eyes. Terrified, she was about to faint when she saw another dark shadow coming toward the beast and attacking it. She tried to hold back her fears and looked closely at the dark form. It was none other than the toad she had fed for years. The last thing she saw before she passed out was thick smoke filling the air.

When she regained consciousness, she found a huge, horrible centipede dead on the ground. She looked for her toad frantically. Alas, the brave toad was also found dead. Overwhelmed with grief, she broke into tears. She sobbed bitterly, stroking the toad’s back gently. After all, the toad sacrificed its life to save its master.

The following day, village people came to the shrine to recover the girl’s body. To their surprise, however, they found the body of a large centipede there. More surprisingly, the girl still remained alive, crying and stroking a dead toad. The villagers buried the toad in a sunny spot and burned the centipede. The beast that had harassed the village for all those years was gone, and people no longer had to hold the awful ritual.