Hello, everyone. Welcome to “Korean Folktales.” In this Monday corner, I talk about interesting traditional Korean folk stories. I’m Jinny Na.

Once upon a time, there lived a farmer in a village. One year, many people in the village, including the farmer, were starving due to a poor harvest. It was very difficult to secure even a bowl of rice. So, the poor farmer collected things in the house and sold them in the market to get some money. With that money, he could buy a little bag of rice. It was only a small amount of rice but he felt relieved, thinking that he and his wife would manage to survive on that, even for a short while.

On his way home, he came across a man who was holding a basket filled with frogs. The farmer was curious about the frogs. He asked the man, “What are you going to do with the frogs?” The man answered, with a shrug, “Well, I’m very hungry but I don’t have anything to eat right now. It may sound a little creepy, but I’m going to grill these frogs and eat them.”

The farmer felt sorry for the poor animals. But he couldn’t blame the man, since the man, like many others in the village, was starving. Still, the farmer couldn’t stop thinking about the frogs croaking in the basket. The man was about to leave, when the farmer stopped him. “Hey, why don’t you sell the frogs to me? I’ll give you this bag of rice. You can eat rice instead of frogs. What do you say?” The man looked surprised at the unexpected proposal. He quickly handed the basket over to the farmer and took the rice.

The farmer went to a nearby pond, carrying the basket with him. As he reached the pond, the tenderhearted man released all the frogs into the water. “Go, frogs. You’re free now. Don’t get caught ever again.” The frogs croaked loudly, as if thanking the man, before disappearing into the water. Before long, as the farmer was about to leave, the frogs came up to the surface again. They were carrying a dipper made of gourd and pushed it toward the man. The farmer picked up the gourd dipper. He decided to take it, since he thought that his wife might find a use for it.

He came back home, where his wife was waiting for him to bring some rice. But what she received was not a bag of rice but a gourd dipper, which looked old and shabby. The farmer explained what had happened to him and said sorry to her. The wife was puzzled and even upset to hear the ridiculous exchange of rice for frogs. But she said nothing, since it was all water under the bridge. With a deep sigh, she put some barley corn on the gourd dipper to make something to eat with what little grain she had. To her great astonishment, she found that the dipper was filled with rice. It turned out that the thing given by the frogs was actually a magic dipper that produces rice. Every time she put some grains on it, the gourd dipper would be full of white rice.

The farmer and his wife were delighted to have the miraculous dipper. They believed that it was a gift from heaven, and they thought they should share it with other people. Thanks to the magic dipper, they soon became rich. They lived happily ever after, sharing what they had with neighbors in need.

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 Jinny Na. Goodbye, everyone.