The Ungrateful Tiger

Korea

One day a tiger was trapped in a pit, and asked a passing traveler to rescue it, promising to reward him. So the traveler poked a long branch down into the pit, and the tiger crawled out. But when it was safe again it turned on the traveler and roared with its mouth wide open, "I am very hungry and I am going to eat you up."

The traveler protested and chided the tiger. "You are most ungrateful," he said. "You must not do that." But the tiger ignored his protests, and so the traveler appealed to a toad which lived under a nearby rock.

The traveler told the toad of the tiger's ingratitude, but the tiger insisted that it was hungry and meant to eat the traveler.

"I must look into this more closely," said the toad. "Will you show me the place where it happened?" So they took it along to the pit. Then the toad asked the tiger, "How did it happen? Let me see just where you were."

So the tiger jumped down into the pit and said, "I was down here at the bottom, see."

But the traveler took the branch out of the pit and said, "Of course, this wasn't there then."

The toad turned to the traveler and said with a smile. "You had better go now, and in future don't help such ungrateful creatures." And looking down at the tiger in the pit it said, "You ungrateful wretch! You can stay down there now."

The traveler thanked the toad and went on his way. The tiger trapped in the pit roared in fury, but the toad went back to its home under the rock and refused to help it.