This is a Folk Tale from Korea. It is about how much Bothers and Sisters love each other and their families.
How many of you have brothers or sisters. Well, even if you dont have brothers or sisters, you will have cousins. Or you will have friends who are like your brothers or sisters.
This story happened long long ago in Korea. Do you know where that country is? There were two brothers who lived in a house with their father. The older brother's name was Nolbu and he was not very nice. If he saw some body who was sad he would laugh at them. He was not nice to animals. He was not even nice to to people, not even to his brother. The younger brother's name was Hungbu. Hungbu loved his family and his brother very much.
Thats how it is with brothers. They love each other even when the person may be a little bad. Even when Nolbu was bad, Hungbu did not like it if other people said Nolbu was bad. He always wanted other people to think that Nolbu was good. Both of them grew up and got married and had their own family and lived in the same big house with their dad.
Dad wanted the brothers to be good friends and always share whatever they had. One day he got sick and felt that his time on earth was ending. So he called Nolbu and Hungbu and made them promise that they always share what they had and be good to each other. After some days, the father's life on earth ended; so he died and he went away to be with God.
Nolbu was mean. He went to Hungbu and said "Now that our father has gone to heaven, this whole big house is mine. You and your wife and children have to leave the house. Hungbu felt sad that his brother was not nice to him. But he did not know how to tell his brother to be good. So he and his wife and children left the house and went to the cold dreary outside and walked and walked to the other side of the hill. Hungbu built a small house there and they started living there.
One day, Hungbu was working in the field and he saw a small swallow lying on the ground. The little swallow had a broken wing. Hungbu took it home, made a little nest out of cotton for it and gave small grains and drops of water. After some time, it got healed up and flew away. Many days later it came back, and dropped three seeds in Hungbu's hands. Hungbu planted the seeds carefully and watered it every day. the seeds grew into big plants and gave 3 big pumpkins. When Hungu cut the pumkins, a while lot of silk and gold came out of the first one, a huge amount of rice came out the second and fifteen carpenters came out of the third. The carpenters quickly marched out and built a big house for Hungbu and his family. Hungbu now had enough rice for many many years and lots of money and he lived happily.
Now Nolbu heard about how his poor brother became rich. So he asked Hungbu how he got his riches. He went to find a little swallow who was hurt. But when he found the swallow, he did not take good care of the poor little bird. Poor little birdie got healed by itself and flew away. It came back again and gave three seeds to Nolbu. Nolbu just threw the seeds on the ground and did not even bother to water the plant. But the plants came out anyway. When Nolbu cut the pumpkin, a whole bunch of mud and dirt came out and his big house got all smelly and dirty and the whole house got burnt up.
So Nolbu and his family had nowhere to go. Nolbu went walking and walking and finally came near Hungbu's house. Nolbu was feeling bad. Remember he had treated Hungbu very badly? So he felt ashamed to ask Hungbu for help. Hungbu happened to come out of his house and what did he see?! Nolbu and his family were standing there in the cold looking very sad. Hungbu loved his brother and was happy to see him. Hungbu brought them all inside the house and gave them food and comfortable rooms to sleep. Nolbu was very sorry he had treated Hungbu so badly and said sorry. Hungbu said , 'Thats all right. I still love you because you are my brother. Remember we promised our Dad that we would share everything? Come and stay with me always. ". So Nolbu and Hungbu's family lived together that time onward. They took care of one another and their kids took care of each other and everybody lived happily ever after.
