Then something terrible happened.  As he wiped the sweat from his brow, a piece of his forehead peeled off!  His forehead became triangular in shape, for his flesh had decayed while he was in the stomach of the fish.

At the sight of the cricket’s ludicrous forehead, the ant broke into laughter and grasped his waist. He laughed and laughed until tears ran down his face.  He could not stop laughing however much he tried.  To keep from laughing, he grasped his waist with his hands so tightly that his waist became thinner and thinner until it was like a thread.

The kingfisher also could not help laughing at the sight of the cricket’s ridiculous forehead.  While laughing with the ant, however, he noticed what happened to the ant’s waist and realized he had to be careful about laughing.  He grasped his beak with his two feet with all his might to stop his laughter.  But by the time he stopped laughing, he found that his beak had become long and awkward.

Thus the three friends suffered ugly changes of their features.  From that day on, the kingfisher has been hostile to the cricket, because he blames his ugliness on him. 

The kingfisher, who once caught only fish, began to kill crickets as well.  The ant, on the other hand, swore that he would never interfere with others.  He has been interested only in his own business and works with indifference to everyone else to this day.

Stingy Choi Chum-ji

Once upon a time there lived a stingy man named Choi Chum-ji in Jin Joo town.  Although he was wealthy, his stinginess was beyond description.

On his dinner table was nothing except boiled rice.  When mealtime came, Choi Chum-ji used to run here and there about his house.  When his servants saw him running they thought it strange and they asked, “Master, why are you jumping around the house like this?”

He told them, “I’ve told you that hunger is equal to a good side dish.  You still don’t know that?  I want you to run around like me before eating instead of complaining about the lack of side dishes on your dinner table!”  Even during the day, before sitting down to his lunch table, he ran ten times around his yard.