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JENNA KIMTHE TIGER !AND THE !DRIED PERSIMMON

THE TIGER !AND THE !DRIED PERSIMMON!JENNA

© Jenna Kim 김제나 jenna.kim.us@gmail.com

Once upon a time, there was a big, scary tiger living in a forest. The tiger couldn’t find anything to eat for a few days because of the heavy snow. She was starving. 3

So on a cold winter night, the tiger crept into a village looking for food. She soon found a cow living in a barn next to a house. As she approached the house, she heard a boy crying. 5

The tiger peeked into the house and saw the boy’s mother trying to calm him down. She said to the crying boy, “If you keep crying, the tiger will hear you. He’s just outside the house!” The tiger was surprised. ‘How did she know that I’m here?’, she thought.7

But the boy cried even louder. His mom tried again, “Stop crying, or else the tiger will take you away.” That did not work either. The boy kept crying. The tiger was confused. Everyone was supposed to be scared of her. In the forest, every animal dreaded her. ‘Is the boy not afraid of me?’, she thought. 9

Then, the mother said, “Here is a dried persimmon.” When the mother handed him the dried persimmon, the child immediately stopped crying. 11

The tiger was shocked. ‘What on earth is a dried persimmon?’, the tiger thought. ‘It must be scarier than I am!’ The tiger got scared and decided to run away.13

At that moment, something fell on the tiger’s back. The tiger was surprised and he got scared. ‘It must be the dried persimmon!’, the tiger thought. ‘It’s going to hurt me. What should I do?’15

It was actually a thief who fell on the tiger’s back. She had come to the house to steal a cow. Thinking that the tiger was the cow, the thief leaped on the tiger. The tiger believed that the creature on her back was a dried persimmon and started running with all her might. 17

The thief realized that the creature was not a cow but a tiger. She was terrified. She held on tight to the back of the tiger so as not to fall off. The thief soon decided to jump off and run away.19

Just as the tiger was running through the trees, the thief jumped off the tiger and grabbed a branch above her. The tiger didn’t realize what had happened and kept running. 20

When the tiger got tired and couldn’t keep going, she stopped. She finally realized that the creature on her back was gone. She let out a sigh of relief. “Whew! The dried persimmon is finally gone. I’m safe now.”21

Ever since then, the tiger never went back to the village - not even when she got very hungry.22