For those who follow the Gregorian calendar, the New Year is here. Around this time of year, many Koreans visit fortunetellers to have their fortunes told for the coming year. In fact, this custom of consulting a fortuneteller to catch a glimpse of one’s future was pretty common in the past when superstition actually served as a religion for many souls. And some soothsayers proved to be really good. The following story is about an excellent fortuneteller, who, unfortunately, met a tragic end.

Once upon a time, a fortuneteller was walking along the road when he saw a woodcutter carrying a load of firewood on his back. The fortuneteller was really good at divination and he instinctively knew that something was wrong with the woodcutter. He stared at the woodcutter, and after a moment, he saw an evil spirit sitting on the woodcutter’s back. Of course, the devil was invisible to ordinary people. With an apparent sense of foreboding, he followed the woodcutter, who entered a magnificent house. Before long, a wailing cry came out of the house. The fortuneteller asked a servant in the house what had happened, and the servant said the daughter of the house owner died suddenly just a minute ago. The fortuneteller approached the owner and told him that it was still possible to save the girl. The desperate father was willing to do anything, as long as his beloved daughter would come back to life.

The fortuneteller entered the room where the dead girl was lying. He shut the door and windows tight and asked everyone to stay away from the room. As he expected, the fortuneteller saw the evil spirit, which he had seen earlier, sitting on the woman. He began to chant a spell to scare away the ghost. The devil, unable to bear the incantation, jumped up and down and looked frantically for an exit. As the fortuneteller had already closed the door and windows, the ghost couldn’t escape and it was gradually losing spirit.

Outside of the room, a curious servant was dying to know what was happening in the room. He secretly poked a hole through the paper sliding door to peep into the room. Instantly, the evil spirit slipped out of the room through the hole. As soon as the devil left, the girl miraculously came back to life. Overjoyed, the father thanked the fortuneteller repeatedly and offered him lots of money. But the fortuneteller’s face was not bright. He knew that the devil had run away and it would probably do harm to him sometime in the future. He refused to receive any reward and left the house.

The marvelous fortuneteller’s fame spread throughout the country and even reached the palace. The king wanted to test how excellent the fortuneteller was. He called the psychic into the royal court. He put a box before the fortuneteller and ordered him to figure out what was inside it. He answered that there were seven mice in the box. In fact, there was only one mouse in it. The king was disappointed and asked the fortuneteller to try again. But the answer was the same. Now the king was angry. He thought the fortuneteller was an incompetent liar who deceived people. So the king ordered officials to behead him right away.

But the king wondered why such a famous fortuneteller persistently repeated the same answer. Suddenly, a thought struck him. Just to be sure, the king ordered that the mouse in the box be cut open. To his surprise, there were six baby mice in the mouse’s belly. The king urgently sent his official to stop the fortuneteller’s execution. On the execution ground, the headsman was awaiting a signal. If the flag moved to the right, the poor man would be beheaded. If the flag moved to the left, the man would be set free. The king’s official rushed to the scene and was about to turn the flag to the left. At that very moment, however, the ghost, which had been expelled by the fortuneteller the other day, suddenly appeared and forcibly moved the flag to the right. Without a moment’s hesitation, the headsman cut the fortuneteller’s head off with his sword.

In the end, the ill-fated fortuneteller couldn’t predict his own destiny. If he had, he wouldn’t have saved the girl’s life in the first place.