A good trade is supposed to be conducted on an equal basis in a fair manner to prove mutually beneficial. In today’s folktale “A Radish Traded for a Calf,” I’ll talk about a good trade and an unfair trade, which eventually proved fair.

A long time ago, there lived a farmer in a small village. He was a good-hearted and hard-working man. One spring, as in previous years, the farmer planted radishes in his field. He raised them with great care, weeding and fertilizing the field laboriously. His painstaking efforts finally bore fruit, as he saw an excellent harvest year for radishes in the following autumn. The radishes were all really nice and ripe. The farmer was happy, of course. But he also thought it was a shame to eat such good radishes all by himself. So, among the harvested radishes, he chose the finest one and took it to the village magistrate.

The magistrate had a good reputation as he was an honest and sensible official. He would give his people tax exemption when they had a poor crop due to the bad weather. He was also known for making fair and impartial judgments. Now, the diligent farmer offered his radish to the magistrate and said, “Sir, I’ve been farming for years but this is the first time I harvested a radish as superb as this. I believe this is all thanks to you, sir. You have always ruled the village so wisely and generously. Here, I’d like to offer you one of my radishes.”

Needless to say, the magistrate was pleased to hear that. He thanked the farmer for the radish. But he thought that was not enough. He didn’t want to send the kind farmer empty-handed and he hoped to give him something in return. The magistrate called for a servant and asked him what the most valuable thing available in the storeroom was. The servant answered that the best item would be a calf. So, the magistrate ordered the servant to give the calf to the farmer as a reward. The farmer was, of course, very delighted to receive the unexpected, lavish gift. He drove the calf home, determined to grow the animal well.

Now in the same village, there lived a very stingy farmer. The rumor about a radish traded for a calf spread throughout the entire town, and it also reached the miser. He thought to himself that if a person got a calf for a mere radish, he himself would receive something a lot better if he offered the magistrate a cow. He even imagined he could get gold or farming land.

A couple of days later, the stingy farmer chose a cow that he had grown for years and drove it to the magistrate’s office. When the magistrate appeared, the farmer lost no time in lavishing praise and flattery on the official and showed his cow. “Your honor, I’ve been raising cows for several years but this one is the finest and largest one that I’ve ever seen. I think this is all because of you. You have been such a great magistrate for the past years. As a token of respect and gratitude, I’m offering this cow to you.”

The magistrate, again, thanked the stingy farmer for the fine animal. And again, he called for the servant and asked the same question. Asked what the most valuable and latest gift brought to the office was, the servant remembered the radish that he had stored only a few days ago. The servant immediately brought the radish to the magistrate, who, in return, gave it to the stingy farmer. Of course, this was the last thing the farmer wanted. He had actually been waiting for the servant to bring a precious treasure or something like that. But what he received was a big, heavy radish. His heart sank low but he couldn’t complain. All he could do was express gratitude to the magistrate politely and trudge home, carrying the heavy radish. This time around, it was a trade of a cow for a radish. It sounds like an unfair trade, but it does serve him right.