In the misty mountains of old Korea, there once lived a mighty tiger. His fur gleamed like golden fire, his eyes blazed like lanterns in the dark, and his roar echoed from valley to valley. Every creature feared him, and even hunters dared not wander too deep into his territory. The tiger believed there was nothing in the world stronger or braver than himself.
One cold evening, after wandering the forest in search of food, the tiger grew hungry and followed the smell of smoke to a nearby village. He crept close to a small farmhouse, hoping to find something to eat. Through a crack in the wall, he saw a mother rocking her crying baby by the hearth.
The child wailed and kicked, no matter how the mother soothed him. “Hush now,” she whispered. “If you don’t stop crying, a tiger will come and take you away!”
The tiger paused outside the wall and grinned proudly. “Ah, even humans fear me,” he said to himself. “Indeed, I am the most dreadful creature in all the land.”
But the baby continued to cry. The mother sighed again and said softly, “If you stop crying, I’ll give you a gotgam.”
At once, the baby stopped crying. The tiger’s grin faded. “What is this gotgam?” he wondered. “If even a tiger’s name cannot frighten the child, but this gotgam can, then surely the gotgam must be a terrifying monster!”
The tiger began to tremble. “I must see what this dreadful gotgam looks like,” he said, backing away into the shadows.
Meanwhile, in the same village, a thief crept quietly through the night. He planned to steal a cow from the farmer’s barn. But in the darkness, he took the wrong path and instead found the tiger crouching behind the house. The thief saw the tiger’s shape but thought it was the cow he had come to steal.
“Ah, there you are,” he whispered, tying a rope around the tiger’s neck. The tiger froze, thinking the terrible gotgam had caught him!
“Oh no,” thought the tiger, his fur standing on end. “It has come for me! This must be the gotgam! It’s got me by the neck!”
The thief tugged the rope hard. “Move, you lazy beast!” he hissed, and the tiger, too terrified to resist, followed quietly, trembling all the while. The thief led him down the mountain, grumbling at how heavy and strong the “cow” felt.
When they reached a clearing, the moon broke through the clouds. The thief finally looked closely at what he was leading and his blood ran cold. “A tiger!” he gasped.
Startled and horrified, the thief dropped the rope and scrambled up a nearby tree, clinging to the branches for dear life.
The tiger, still shaking, thought, “At last, the gotgam has released me!” But then he noticed something strange, a dark shape moving in the tree above.
“Could it be another gotgam?” he whispered in terror. He turned and fled as fast as his legs could carry him, crashing through bushes and leaping over rocks. His great roar echoed through the mountains as he ran, too frightened to look back.
The thief, meanwhile, sat trembling in the tree until dawn. When the sun rose, he climbed down, amazed that he was still alive. “I caught a tiger and lived to tell the tale,” he laughed weakly. “No one will believe me.”
As for the tiger, he never returned to that village again. From that day forward, he warned every animal in the forest, “Beware of the creature called Gotgam! It is more fearsome than a tiger!”
And thus, in the mountains of Korea, the story spread that the bravest of beasts was once outwitted not by a hunter, not by a trap, but by a humble dried fruit and a foolish mistake.
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Moral Lesson
The tale of The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon teaches that fear often comes from misunderstanding. What we imagine to be frightening can be nothing at all, and even the strongest may tremble when their minds deceive them. Courage grows from knowledge, while ignorance breeds fear.
Knowledge Check
1. Why did the tiger go to the village?
He was hungry and hoped to find food after wandering in the forest.
2. What made the tiger believe the gotgam was terrifying?
He overheard a mother say that a tiger would come for her crying baby, but when the baby stopped crying after hearing “gotgam,” the tiger assumed the gotgam was a powerful monster.
3. What mistake did the thief make?
He thought the tiger was a cow in the dark and tied a rope around its neck to steal it.
4. Why did the tiger follow the thief quietly?
He believed the thief was the dreadful gotgam and was too frightened to resist.
5. How did the thief escape?
He climbed a tree in terror when he realized he had captured a tiger instead of a cow.
6. What lesson does the story teach?
It shows that fear often arises from misunderstanding and that even the brave can be fooled by their own imagination.
Source:
Adapted from “The Tiger and the Dried Persimmon” (Horangi wa Gotgam), a traditional Korean folktale preserved in oral storytelling and popular children’s collections.
Cultural Origin: Korea (traditional / oral folklore)
