Once upon a time, there lived a poor teacher in Seoul. And he had a student named Kim. Every day a teacher came to Kim and taught him everything he knew. Kim and the teacher loved each other very much. But Kim’s mother did not like the teacher and fed him poorly - she only gave him porridge. One day Kim asks:
- Why do you, mom, only feed the teachers porridge? And the mother answers:
- What else should I feed him? If only he were a scientist, otherwise he’s a scientist!
The boy felt bad for his teacher, and he decided to prove to his mother that his teacher was a great sage and knew everything. He crept into the kitchen at night, collected all the bowls that were in the house, took them to the bank of the stream and buried them in the sand.
In the morning my mother came into the kitchen - there wasn’t a single bowl. She began to run around the house, looking for bowls. He searches and searches, but can’t find it.
And Kim says to the teacher:
– The bowls are buried on the bank of the stream. Tell your mother that if she asks.
And the mother actually ran to the teacher:
“My son keeps praising you, he says, you are a great sage.” If this is true, maybe you will find the bowls that disappeared from the kitchen last night?
The teacher made a smart face, tugged at his beard as if he was thinking, and then said:
“There’s no need to look for them: they’re buried in the sand on the bank of the stream.”
Kim's mother ran to the bank of the stream and, well, rake up the sand. Soon she unearthed her bowls. She grabbed them with both hands, pressed them to herself with all her might - as if someone would take them away - and ran home.
In the evening, Kim’s mother came out of the gate and began telling her neighbors about the wise teacher:
“He knows everything in the world, he can find any jewel!” No thief can escape from him!
The neighbors listen and are surprised - there are such sages in the world! Soon the whole street was talking about the sage, and then the whole city.
Rumor reached the great van. Van was surprised: he knew all the wise men, but he had never even heard of this one.
He ordered to invite the sage to the palace. The teacher was scared. “What a sage I am,” he thinks. “What will I tell Van?” However, there is nothing to be done, Van cannot be disobeyed.
He came to the palace, bowed to the van, and the van said:
“It’s immediately obvious that you are a great sage: you walk smoothly, as befits a sage, your eyes are closed in deep thought.
But the poor teacher cannot say a word out of fear, he is afraid to open his eyes - he is afraid to look at Van. Van was silent and waited for an answer. The teacher is silent. Then Van says:
– A jasper casket was stolen from the Son of Heaven, our neighbor. Chinese sages searched the entire Celestial Empire - they could not find anything. So the Son of Heaven asked me to send the wisest of all my sages to China. Go to the Celestial Empire, find the casket. If you don’t find it, I’ll order you to cut off your head.
The poor teacher was sad. He came to Kim and said:
“We shouldn’t have played a joke on your mother, Kim.” Don't blow my head off now.
I told the boy everything. Kim thought: “Will the teacher die because of me? We must save him."
“Let me go with you,” he suggested. “Look, we’ll come up with something.”
That's what they decided on. Kim told his father that he wanted to see the Celestial Empire, and his father let him go with the teacher.
The teacher and Kim arrived in China and saw that a great crowd of people had gathered in the square: everyone wanted to see the Korean sage. An important dignitary came forward and conveyed to the teacher the emperor’s order to find the jasper casket in fifteen days. The teacher didn’t say anything, he just bowed. And the dignitary took him to a rich house.
- If you need anything, tell me. You will not be denied anything. The teacher bowed again and said respectfully:
– My favorite student came with me, his name is Kim. Tell him, sir, to be allowed to see me: he is my first assistant.
The dignitary went out into the street, and Kim stood at the gate, telling onlookers about Korea.
- Come on, Kim, follow me! - the adviser orders. Kim was scared, but did not dare to disobey. He went for the dignitary, and he led him straight to the teacher. The teacher and Kim sat down opposite each other and began to think about how to find the chest. We thought and thought, but didn’t come up with anything.
The country is so huge, where can one find a casket? It’s all like looking for a needle in the hay!
We decided: come what may, let’s feast day and night. Ten days passed like this. On the eleventh, the teacher and Kim began to prepare for death.
And the thieves who stole the casket cannot find a place for themselves, they are afraid of the overseas sage: the whole city only talks about him, and everyone is sure that. there will definitely be a casket.
Finally the thieves decided to look at the sage. They crept up to the house on a dark night and looked out the window.
Kim heard a rustling sound and became alarmed.
- Teacher, and teacher, who is that scratching at the window? - asks.
And the teacher answers:
– Don’t be afraid, Kim, it’s just rain and wind.
The thieves gasped - after all, that’s their name: Rain and Wind. They sat down under the window and became sad.
“Come on, Rain, let’s obey the sage,” says the Wind. “Anyway, he knows everything: we didn’t even have time to sneak up to the house, and he even recognized our names.”
“Come on,” agreed Rain. - Is it possible to outwit him? Let's tell him where the casket is hidden and ask for forgiveness.
The thieves waited until morning, came to the teacher, knelt down in front of him and started hitting their foreheads on the floor:
- Spare us, great sage! We'll tell you where the chest was hidden.
The teacher almost jumped for joy, and he himself answered menacingly:
- Oh, you worthless thieves! I should cut off your heads for such things, but so be it, for mercy’s sake. Well, tell me quickly, where did they put the casket?
The thieves said that they threw the casket into the lotus lake, and their teacher let them go in peace.
The next day the teacher came to the palace, bowed to the emperor and said:
“I know, Son of Heaven, where your casket is.” Gather as many people as you can and tell them to empty the lotus lake. The casket lies there at the bottom.
The emperor gathered his subjects and ordered them to empty the lotus lake. The subjects began to draw water. They scooped up a day, they scooped up two days, and finally they scooped up all the water. The emperor looks - there is a jasper casket at the bottom. He was delighted, quickly grabbed the casket and ran into the palace to lock the casket in the farthest room.
And the teacher and Kim are even more happy. “We’ll go home soon,” they think.
They thought, but it didn’t work out that way. The emperor was angry that the sages of the Celestial Empire could not find the casket, but the sage of the Land of Morning Freshness found it, and decided to destroy the sage. He called the teacher to him and said:
[Land of morning freshness – Korea.]
- Since you are so wise and can do anything, get me the sun from the sky - I want to see what it is like up close. If you don't get it, I'll cut off your head. I give fifteen days.
The teacher was saddened and told Kim about everything. They both cried and began to wait for death. And then to say, is there even one person on earth who can reach the sun?
They cried and cried, and then Kim said:
- Why cry in vain, teacher? Let's live better for now for our own pleasure. Then death will not be so terrible.
The teacher agreed, and again they arranged a feast for the whole world. They feasted for fourteen days, and on the fifteenth Kim came up with a trick. He told the teacher about her, and he was delighted: “Well done, Kim!” We'll have a great time!
The teacher came to the emperor and said:
“Give me, Son of Heaven, a ladder, and let it be a hundred miles long.” Then I’ll get you the sun.
The emperor gathered all his subjects, and they made a staircase a hundred miles long.
They brought the ladder to the square, leaned it against the palace wall, the teacher approached it, looked at the crowd that had gathered to gawk at the great miracle, and climbed up.
He climbed and climbed, and then looked down and shouted:
- Hey, Kim, why are you standing there? Run away from here quickly! Now I’m going to shoot the sun, it’s going to burn the whole city!
- Oh-oh-oh! – Kim yelled and ran away.
And all the people ran after him, the noise was incredible!
The emperor was frightened: “The sages of the Celestial Empire could not find the casket, but he could. What if he really removes the sun from the sky? What should we do then? The emperor thought so and shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Hey, sage, I changed my mind: I don’t need to take pictures of the sun, I don’t want to look at it up close! Let it hang in the sky.
- Well, no! - the teacher answers. - You told me to take off the sun - get it!
He said so and climbed up again.
“Don’t, sage,” the emperor shouts again, “don’t take off the sun!” I'll give you everything you want, just come downstairs!
“Okay, so be it,” said the teacher and climbed down.
The emperor presented the teacher with rich gifts, and the teacher and Kim returned home.
Since then, their friendship has become even stronger.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru