The Teacher's Secret and the Curious Students

There was once a prestigious school in Korea where the students learned to read and write Chinese. The teacher was an old man who always seemed to be angry, especially when his students didn't do their school work well. But he had a secret that none of the students knew about.

Every day, the teacher would bring a basket to class. Sometimes, when he watched his students working, he would take something out of the basket and eat it. The students were always curious about what the teacher was eating, but he would only say, "It's my secret. It's good for old men, but it's poison for children."

One day, the teacher had to go to the nearest town, leaving his students to study on their own. As the morning went on, the students grew tired of reading and writing. One curious little boy decided to take matters into his own hands. "Let's look in the teacher's basket," he said to his friends. "I want to know his secret."

When they opened the basket, they found lots of nice dried fruit inside. "That isn't poison," said an older girl. "I'm hungry," said the little boy, and he took some fruit from the basket and began to eat it. Soon, all the students were eating the teacher's fruit, until there was nothing left in the basket.

The students panicked. "What are we going to do now? The teacher will be very angry with us," they said.

But the little boy had an idea. "Can you help me?" he asked the others. He then instructed them to push over the teacher's table, spilling black ink all over the floor and breaking the teacher's beautiful ink stone in half.

"Okay, now lie down, everybody," said the little boy. Confused, the students did as they were told.

When the teacher returned, he was shocked to find all his students lying on the floor. "What's the matter? Why are you all lying on the floor?" he asked.

The little boy stood up and explained, "For a short time this morning, we stopped reading and writing and accidentally played in this room. Your table went on the floor and your ink stone broke in half. We felt very bad about that and we wanted to die, so everybody ate some of the 'poison' in your basket. Now we're waiting to die. We're very sorry."

The teacher didn't speak. He left the room and went into the garden to think. After a moment, he smiled and said, "Hmm, those students are learning quickly."

The students realized the teacher's secret: the "poison" was actually just delicious dried fruit, and the teacher was not as angry as they thought. They had all learned a valuable lesson about taking things at face value and not being quick to judge. From that day on, the teacher and his students had a better understanding and mutual respect for each other.