The Blacksmith and the Carpenter

Once upon a time, there was a village. And in this village, there lived two neighbours, a blacksmith and a carpenter. They both worked very hard every day to earn their living.

The whole village rang with the sounds of their work. You could hear loud noises coming from one of the workshops, as the carpenter strenuously worked the pieces of wood.

And from the other workshop, the clanging of metal rang out in response – master blacksmith hammering iron in his forge. It was as if they were competing to see who could work with the greatest vigour.

One day, a noble scholar from Seoul visited the village. He happened to arrive just in the middle of the local craft fair in a nearby town. All of the craftsmen had left with their products early in the morning, and the village was uncharacteristically quiet. The scholar was happily strolling the picturesque streets, listening to the croaking of frogs and twittering of swallows.

“This village is so peaceful,” he relished. “It looks like the perfect place for me to live out the rest of my days.”

You see, the scholar had been looking for a new place to live for a long while now. His service in Seoul had been coming to an end after many years, and this village seemed just like the perfect heaven on earth. A place where he could spend the rest of his life surrounded by nature. When he noticed a small bamboo grove tucked between two houses, he knew this was the right place for sure.

Before long, builders arrived in the village to put up a small but cosy and tastefully decorated house for the scholar from Seoul. The scholar himself couldn’t wait to finally move into his new…