The tiger is one of the most popular subjects of Korean folktales. Sometimes, it is described as a ferocious animal that mercilessly devours people. In some stories, tigers are so foolish that they are cheated by people or even small animals like rabbits. But this folk story features a very intelligent tigress that builds a friendship with a man.

A long time ago, there lived a man surnamed Park in a mountain village. His job was to grow bamboo trees and cut them down before selling them in the market. One day, when looking around his bamboo grove, he found that new bamboo shoots that were just about to sprout up had been trampled down. He also found some animal footprints around the area. Park was angry. He decided to get rid of the nasty animal and he followed the trail of the footprints deep into the forest. He was carrying a bamboo spear with him.

Park reached the place where the footprints ended. He held the bamboo spear up high, ready to attack. But what he found there were a few baby tigers. The little tiger cubs were looking at the man with innocent eyes. He also stared at the cubs, still holding the bamboo stick. After a moment, he put the stick down. He couldn’t bear to kill the cute, fragile creatures. He forgot about the bamboo shoots and just left the place.

Later, when the mother tiger returned, she saw a bamboo spear nearby. As the intelligent tigress knew that the sharp thing belonged to human beings, she immediately figured out what had happened. She was also relieved to see her babies safe and well. The tigress held a wild pig she had hunted in her mouth and went to a house near the bamboo grove. She put the boar down in the yard of the house before leaving.

The next day, when the mother tiger returned from hunting, she found that her babies were eating something. It was the wild boar that she had taken to the man’s house the previous day. It turned out that the man had given it to the little tigers he had happened to encounter. The mother tiger was impressed. That night, she took another mountain animal to the man’s house. In the same way, though, the animal ended up being eaten by the baby tigers the following day. This happened again and again. Although the man and the tigress couldn’t talk to each other, they were able to understand w hat was happening between them. The man finally accepted the gift from the tigress. From then on, people in the entire village were never harmed by wild animals.