One winter evening in a Korean village, a mother tried to calm her crying baby by warning, “Be quiet, or the tiger will come!”
But the baby kept crying. Then she added, “Look, a persimmon!” The baby stopped.
Outside, a tiger had been sneaking near the home and overheard everything. He was confused. “I am the great predator, yet the child fears a… persimmon?” Terrified of this unknown creature, the tiger fled into the forest.
On the way, he ran into a thief who had stolen an ox. Startled by the rustling, the thief jumped on the tiger’s back, thinking it was the ox. The tiger thought the thief was the dreaded persimmon. They both panicked and eventually went their separate ways, swearing never to return.
Moral: Fear often comes from misunderstanding.
