Heungbu and the Swallow

In a village in Korea there lived two brothers. The elder brother, Nolbu, was very rich but very stingy. The younger brother, Heungbu, was very poor but very kind. Nolbu took everything their father had left and drove Heungbu and his children out of the house. Heungbu did not get angry; he built a small hut with a thatched roof and lived there with his family.

One spring day a pair of swallows built a nest on Heungbu's roof. One day one of the chicks fell from the nest and broke its leg. Heungbu took the chick in his hand, bound its leg with a thin twig, and gave it water and seeds every day. The chick got better, and when autumn came it flew south with its mother.

The next spring the swallow came back and dropped a gourd seed in front of Heungbu. Heungbu planted the seed. The gourd vine grew so quickly that the roof was covered with huge gourds. In autumn they cut open one gourd, and rice poured out of it! From the second gourd came cloth, and from the third came builders, who built them a beautiful house. Heungbu and his children were never hungry again.

When Nolbu heard this, he nearly burst with jealousy. "I'll get rich too!" he said. He found a swallow chick, hurt its leg himself and then bandaged it carelessly. The next spring that swallow brought him a seed too. Nolbu's gourds grew. But when Nolbu cut them open, instead of rice there came mud, instead of cloth there came thorns, and instead of builders there came creditors demanding money. In a moment all of Nolbu's wealth was gone.

When Nolbu became poor, he knocked on his brother's door, ashamed. Heungbu hugged him: "Brother, come in. My house is your house too." That day Nolbu learned a great deal from his brother's kindness, and he was never stingy again.

This tale tells us: kindness is done without expecting anything in return, and kindness from the heart brings plenty. What is gained through cruelty never lasts.