And do you know what? Even when her body itched and her skin rubbed off, that louse still would not stop eating her favorite goolgool sweets! She thought to herself, “I’m going to die anyway, so why not enjoy myself?”

One day, when the hot goolgool sweets were being pulled from the big pot, the louse bent over to look into the bubbling oil. Just as she looked at the sweets, her foot slipped and she fell into the boiling oil. She had to get out fast, or she would be dead!

Leaping out of the boiling sesame oil, the louse found her body had lost its leprous sores and was as beautiful as gold.

The louse jumped out instantly.

When she did her rat husband sighed a sigh of relief. And then he sighed another just to look at her, a sigh of wonderment. The louse’s leprosy had washed away in that boiling sesame oil. Her body was suddenly as beautiful and shiny as gold! The rat sighed again. He looked beside himself with joy.

But all the sickness that had washed away had turned the oil a deep red color. Since all the goolgool sweets had been taken out already, the rat and the louse decided to clean the pot by dumping the red oil into a nearby pond. Together they tipped the pot, and out spilled the oil. As soon as they did, the water in the pond turned a sickly shade of red.

The pond cried out to the louse, “Oh, my dearest friend, whatever have you done? My water is completely ruined! Now what creature would dare drink such dirty water?”

The louse answered humbly, “My friend, this is my fault. Please forgive me. I will give you a blessing from the depths of my heart, which is so filled with gratitude for being cured of a horrible illness: May your waters become as clear as the dew found in the clouds.”

As the louse and the rat were leaving, they saw a group of swans as black as beetles going toward the water. The swans stopped and addressed the pond: “Yesterday, your waters were as clear and pure as fresh milk. How did you become so red?”