In old times, kings used to dispatch secret investigators to local provinces to read public sentiment and check if local administrators were governing their districts properly. One day, entrusted with this mission, a secret royal inspector was passing by a village. His legs hurt due to a lot of walking, so he stopped to rest by a small pond. While resting, he saw someone approaching the pond. The man was wearing hemp clothes and a wide-brimmed bamboo hat, which were typically worn by a mourner. Judging from the man’s appearance, the inspector knew that he lost someone in his family.

The mourner took off his bamboo hat as soon as he reached the pond. He held the hat upside the down and dipped it into the water to catch fish. The inspector’s eyes widened at the unexpected sight. It was the custom for people to wear a bamboo hat when their parents died. The practice meant that the mourners were too ashamed to look up in the sky as they let go of their dear parents. But the man was catching fish with the bamboo hat that was supposed to cover his face during the mourning period. The royal inspector was angry. He thought the mourner was such an undutiful son. The inspector decided to follow the mourner to see how the man lived. The mourner entered a shabby house.

A moment later, the inspector knocked the door. When the mourner appeared, the inspector asked him if he could stay the night at the house. The owner of the house was willing to accept the guest and showed him into a room. He then returned to help his old mother eat supper. From a distance, the inspector saw a bowl of steamed rice and a fish dish on the table. The son removed the bones from the fish and gave it to his mother. The inspector was impressed by the son’s devotion. He thought he might have misunderstood the man.

The next morning, the inspector asked the man why he had caught fish with his bamboo hat the previous day. The man looked embarrassed but he answered politely. “Oh, you saw that. I’m so ashamed of my wrong behavior. My mother has been sick for a long time, and she wanted to eat fish. I had to catch fish by all means.” The inspector nodded. Now he understood the man’s actions. When he returned to the royal court, he told the king this story. The king praised the filial son and gave him a reward. The story about the secret inspector and the mourner quickly spread throughout the entire province.

A few days later, the royal inspector set out on his secret tour again. Interestingly, he happened to meet another man wearing hemp clothes along a pond in the neighboring village. He was catching fish with his bamboo hat, just like the first mourner. This time, too, the inspector followed the man, who entered a magnificent mansion. When the inspector knocked the door and asked the mourner to let him stay the night, the man was glad to accept him as if he had been waiting for that. As expected, the man was serving supper for his mother. On the table, there were a bowl of thin soup and fish. The old mother appeared very surprised to see the fish. She said, “Son, what happened to you? I haven’t seen fish on the table for ages. That’s great. But why all of a sudden?”

The royal inspector got the picture. It turned out that the man had pretended to be a devoted son in order to receive a reward after hearing the rumor about the inspector and the first mourner. The next morning, the inspector turned the second mourner over to the local police.