Once upon a time, there lived an old man who made his living by gathering firewood. He was poor but he was an honest and kindhearted man, so everybody in the village liked him. Moreover, he was such a good singer that people loved to listen to his songs. Unfortunately, he had one problem. He had a big wen on his chin that swung whenever he moved. The lump was a real nuisance to him, of course. He tried every possible means to get rid of it, but to no avail.

One day, as always, he went to the mountain to cut firewood. He was unaware of the time as he was engrossed in his work. Only when it was dark, did he realize it was time to return home. While he was fumbling his way down the hill in the dark, he happened to find an empty cottage. He entered the cottage to spend the night. Sitting in the deserted house in complete darkness all alone, he started to get a bit scared. To forget his fear, he began to sing. He felt much better and he sang loudly.

Suddenly, the door flew wide open and a group of goblins with horns burst into the room. The old man was terrified and stopped singing. But the goblins didn’t seem to want to hurt him. Instead, they urged him to keep singing. The old man was frightened to death but he pulled himself together. He kept singing, as he was told to do. The ugly goblins seemed to be really enjoying his song and some of them even danced to his tune. When he finished singing, one of the goblins, who appeared to be their leader, said to him, “The song is amazing. Where on earth does the sweet song come from?” The old man answered, “It comes from my throat, of course.” The goblin shook his head and went on to say, “Nonsense. We have throats, too, but we can’t sing as well as you do. Tell me the truth, old man. What does it really come from?” Just then, a great idea rushed upon his mind. Pointing to the dangling wen on his chin, he answered, “In fact, it comes from this bag of songs.” All the goblins came closer to him to look at his wen and nodded to each other. The leader then suggested that he give the wonderful bag of songs to them and they give him gold and silver in return. The man had no reason to refuse the offer, since he would get treasures and, even better, remove the wen that had always been a trouble to him. So, the man was able to get rid of his wen with no pain at all and received plenty of gold and silver. He returned home without the wen, and he also became a rich man.

Now, a greedy old man in the neighboring village, who also had a wen, happened to hear the story. He quickly visited the honest old man and asked him exactly what had happened. After he heard all the details, he lost no time in setting out to find the abandoned cottage. He finally located the house and went inside, waiting for nightfall. When it grew dark, he began to sing in his own terrible voice. He imagined himself surrounded by all the precious treasures, waiting for the goblins to appear. Finally, a gust of wind blew outside the room and the door was flung open. As the man had expected, dozens of goblins showed up. The goblin leader was the first to speak. “I guess you’ve also come here to exchange your bag of songs, right?” The goblin sounded angry. The man thought it was strange but he said yes. The goblin shouted in anger, “You rascal! Do you think I will be deceived again? No, never again. I don’t want any more song bags.” The man was stunned, but he gathered up his courage and said, “Sir, this is a very nice song bag. You will love it.” The goblin said, now laughing, “Oh, you believe song bags are nice, don’t you? Alright, then, you can have this bag of songs as well!” With these words, the goblin put the first old man’s wen on the chin of the greedy old man. Alas, the man who had wanted to remove his wen had to return home with two of them dangling from his cheeks instead.

There is an old Korean proverb, which was apparently derived from this tale, indicating that a journey to remove a wen will only add another one. The English equivalent is, “you will go for wool and come home shorn,” or “the biter is bit.”