In ancient times, there lived a tax collector named Hwang.
All his life Hwang dreamed of becoming a senior collector, but he never succeeded. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, it was all in vain, they didn’t appoint him senior, and that’s all. “I work day and night, I don’t know sleep or rest, and no one appreciates me,” Hwang lamented. “What could I come up with so that Wang Korea himself would know about me?”
He thought and thought and came up with an idea. He arrived in a distant village, gathered people and said:
“I want to get twice as much rice as I received last year, and three ginseng roots to boot.” If you don’t bring rice and ginseng, I’ll drive everyone away from the earth! I'll give you a week.
He said so and began to wait for taxes, and he himself rejoiced: “They will collect rice from all over the country, and the van will ask: “Who collected the most rice?” Here the most important tax collector bows to him and says: “Hwang collected the most rice, and he also sent three ginseng roots in addition.” The van will be delighted and appoint me as senior collector.”
Hwang waits for the appointed time, and the peasants walk from house to house, collecting grain. They have collected every single grain, cleaned out all the barns, but there is still not enough rice. And there’s nothing to say about ginseng: is it possible to find a precious root in a week? What
what should poor peasants do? They all got together, sat in a circle and began to think about how to get rid of Hwang. We thought for a long time, but didn’t come up with anything.
Suddenly an old hunter comes up to them and says:
“I heard about your misfortune, good people, and this is what I want to tell you. Yesterday I caught a fierce tiger and put it in a box. What if Hwa-nu sent a tiger? Maybe he'll go home then?
The peasants looked at each other:
- The old hunter says it all. Let's send Hwan a tiger and see how he dances.
The peasants ordered two guys to take down the box, and they themselves began to wait to see what would happen next.
The guys barely managed to drag the box: it was very heavy - apparently they had caught a big tiger. They brought Hwan's box, and Hwan asked:
-What did you bring?
The peasants bowed to him and answered respectfully:
- This is to thank you for taking taxes fairly.
Hwang put his hands on his hips and stuck out his chest.
“Thank you, thank you, well done,” he says. The peasants bowed again and went home.
And Hwang walks around the box. “I wonder what’s hidden there? - thinks. - Maybe a roe deer or a deer with antlers? Look how he kicks, the box shakes. You need to open it a little: the hour is uneven, the gift will suffocate.”
He went up to the box, opened the lid, and the tiger jumped out!
- Oh-oh-oh! - Hwang screamed and ran away, only he was seen.
But the tiger ran away into the mountains - he was disgusted with eating Khvan. Since then, Hwang has walked around this village for a hundred years. And he did not become a senior collector.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru