Hello, everyone. Welcome to “Korean Folktales.” This Monday corner takes you to the world of interesting Korean folk stories. I’m Eunji Kim.

Once upon a time, there lived a man in a remote mountain village. He was so lazy that he didn’t work at all. He didn’t even wash his own face. He depended solely on his wife, who always fed and washed him. The wife was frustrated all the time but she resigned herself to taking care of him.

One day, the wife heard of her mother’s death. Of course, she and her husband had to attend the funeral together, but she didn’t expect him to leave the house and travel to another town. So she decided to go alone, but she was worried about what her husband would eat for a few days while she was away. She knew that he wouldn’t bother to go to the kitchen even if she made some food before she left.

After much thought, the wife made many pieces of rice cake, which was his favorite food. She thought it would be a lot easier to eat the pieces than to set the table for steamed rice and side dishes. She showed her husband a basket filled with rice cakes and told him to eat them when he was hungry. The husband made a face. He complained that taking the rice cakes from the basket would be too much of a hassle.

The wife knew how lazy he was, so instead of yelling at him, she strung the rice cakes on a thread and hung them around his neck. She said, “Honey, you don’t even have to stretch your hand to get the rice cakes in the basket. Eat one piece of the rice cakes around your neck whenever you are hungry.” Before leaving, she asked him again to eat the rice cakes and stay well while she was not at home. The husband just looked blankly at his wife.

At first, the wife had intended to stay only a couple of days to attend her mother’s funeral. But it had been quite a while since she last saw her siblings and relatives, so she stayed a few more days to spend time with them.

When she returned home and opened the gate, the house showed no signs of life. Feeling uneasy, she quickly entered the room. She found her husband lying there, not moving a muscle. He was dead, but he still had the rice cakes hanging around his neck. It seemed that he died of starvation as the rice cakes remained exactly the same as they did when the wife left a few days earlier. Clearly, the lazy man didn’t touch even one of the rice cakes.

That’s it for today’s “Korean Folktales.” Tune in again next time for another interesting Korean folk story. Thank you for listening. I’m Eunji Kim, saying goodbye.